
Class ^K j \i \ ^ i 
Bnnk v\\ (o\ 

Copyrigl>t )<? 



COFmiClIT DEPOSIT, 



THE FAITH 

AND 

THE FELLOWSHIP 



BY 

OSCAR L. JOSEPH 

AtTTHOB OP "CHBIST IN HISTOET," ETC. 
WITH A FOREWORD BY 

S. PARKES CADMAN, D.D. 




HODDER & STOUGHTON 

NEW YORK 

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 










COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



APR 2A 1917 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CI.AJ(30565 



u 



r 



TO THE MEMORY OP 
MY MOTHER 

LUCY LOOS JOSEPH, 

MY UNCLE 

THE HONORABLE FREDERICK CHARLES LOOS, C.M.G., 

BUBGHEB REPBESENTATIVE IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF CEYLON, 
MY GRAND-UNCLE 

JAMES LOOS, M.D. (St. Andrews), 

FOUNDEB AND FIBST PBINCIPAL OF THE CETLON MEDICAL COLLEGE. 



FOREWORD 

THIS volume is peculiarly valuable for 
many reasons. In the first place, it deals 
with the vital question of Christianity 
and its organised expression in the Church. 
Further, it transfers the issues arising out of 
so comprehensive a theme to the wider arenas 
of human life and there discusses them with 
insight, reverence and scholarly emphasis. 
The message of the Everlasting Gospel of the 
Risen Lord is carefully expounded, and the 
exposition is marked at every stage by inti- 
mate knowledge, and by freshness and force of 
statement. 

Mr. Joseph has enjoyed special advantages 
which are herein displayed. He hails from the 
foreign and non- Christian world, where he wit- 
nessed the problems and the victories of mis- 
sionary effort. The great literary productions 
of Hindu and Buddhist faith and practice are 
contrasted with the operations of the teachings 
of the New Testament. Indeed, the book casts 
a welcome light on the study of comparative 

vii 



viii Foreword 



religion. The author's residence in the British 
Empire and in onr own Republic has given him 
a conception of Christian obligation which to 
be felt aright must be experienced at first-hand, 
and which arises from actual contact with the 
realms we propose to conquer for the King- 
dom of our Master. This sense of obligation 
prevails throughout his book and lends weight 
to its conclusions. 

We reahse that this is the product of a soul 
deeply moved both by the grandeur of the 
Evangel and the necessities it alone can satisfy- 
Wide reading and close observation have added 
to the merits he discloses, and enriched his clear 
and positive style. The strategic place and 
power of Christianity here receive another and 
a unique tribute. 

S. Paekes Cadman. 

Central Congregational Church, 
Brooklyn, New York City. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB PAGB 

I. The Revelation of Love 13 

• ' II. The Glory of Jesus Christ .... 27 

III. The Fact of Redemption 41 

IV. The Christian's Inspiration ... 57 
V. The Appeal of Discipleship .... 73 

VI. The Practice of Brotherhood ... 89 

VII. The Conclusive Word 105 

VIII. The Church Idea 121 

IX. The Loyal Fellowship 137 

X. The Controlling Purpose .... 151 

XL The Sacred Writings 167 

XII. Decisive Claims 181 

XIII. Acceptable Credentials 197 

XIV. The Larger Vision 213 



CHAPTER ONE: THE REVELATION 
OF LOVE 



' ' God is a most elastic term, capable of narrowing to suit the 
meanest capacity, of expanding to fill the highest. It seems to 
have a sense intelligible to the simplest mind, while to the pro- 
foundest it becomes the symbol of thoughts too high to be 
spoken, too immense to be comprehended. But though it may 
signify very different things to different minds, yet, what it 
signifies does not thereby become unreal. It stands as the sym- 
bol of the best and highest Being man can conceive, his idea 
of the Being rising with his thought of the good and the high. 
The notions of the men who first called the being they wor- 
shipped God, do not bind the latest; the word may remain while 
its contents are transfigured, as it were changed from one de- 
gree of glory to another. But while later may outgrow the 
ideas earlier ages expressed by the term God, they do not out- 
grow the idea which the term represents.'' 

— A, M, Fairhairn: *^The City of God: A Series of 
Discussions in Eeligion," page 193. 



CHAPTER ONE 

THE BEVELATION OF LOVE 

THE coming of Jesus Christ was heralded 
by a weird prophet who established 
his pulpit on the borders of the desert. 
The Baptist did not consult the tastes of his 
large audiences nor did he even consider their 
feelings because he was animated by a domi- 
nant passion for righteousness. The times 
were fearfully out of joint : men had wandered 
away from the fundamental issues of life and 
rehgion ; and they were trying to satisfy the de- 
mands of the inner life with a patch-work sys- 
tem. How foolish and treacherous it would 
have been for the man who clearly saw the 
downward drift of things to have spoken 
^^ peace, peace, when there was no peace. '^ It 
was part of John's mission to awaken the peo- 
ple from their fatal self-complacency and to 
direct their thought to the sublime realities and 
mandates of life. His career was abruptly 
closed but like Amos of an earlier day and Sa- 
vonarola of a later day, he had sowed the seed 
which was to yield a worthy harvest. The work 

13 



14 The Faith and the Fellowship 

of the Baptist was taken up by Jesus who 
showed His sympathy with the uncompromis- 
ing prophet when He used his identical senti- 
ments : ^ ' Eepent ye for the Kingdom of heaven 
is at hand.'' His message was vital and prac- 
tical and He was popular because He spoke 
pleasantly without the sternness of His loyal 
predecessor. 

It was not long before Jesus gathered a com- 
pany of disciples, to whom He set forth the 
ideals and aims of fellowship and service. The 
Sermon on the Mount is a compilation by Mat- 
thew of some of His teachings. It is an illu- 
minative summary of penetrative principles 
which deal with what is central and essential. 
Its sentences are not counsels of perfection, fit 
only for the cloister or for a select type of hu- 
manity who are more virtuous than the rest. 
They are rather counsels for perfection; and 
they are addressed to those who believe in God 
and who realise that they are His children. 
You cannot read them without being impressed 
by the comprehensive and consistent view of 
life therein advocated. The stress is laid on 
what is of first consequence. It is indeed a 
mark of wisdom and insight to know how to 
emphasise that which needs special attention, 
just as it is a mark of spiritual poverty not to 
know how to distinguish between the things 



The Revelation of Love 15 

that differ. All programmes of reform must 
clearly convey the impression that the purpose 
is pure, the motive sincere, and the determina- 
tion undivided. The deeds performed will then 
be of intrinsic excellence and impressive help- 
fulness. 

The ideal presented by Jesus is at once 
unique and practical. Valuable as have been 
the contributions made by the great teachers 
of the ethnic faiths towards understanding and 
prosecuting the religious life, their teachings 
are onesided. Buddha taught that the ideal 
character can be achieved only by the person 
who retires from the world in ascetic seclusion ; 
he thus placed a premium on a life which is self- 
centred and self-absorbed, and the fatal error 
in his message was the serious omission of God 
as the vitalising influence of life. Confucius 
was guided by the principle of worldly wisdom : 
his teaching was inspired by the thought of 
expediency as the law of life and of the superior 
worth of conformity to establish usage ; but this 
is of the earth, earthy, without perspective, vi- 
sion, or outlook. Zoroaster introduced a dual- 
ism when he set up the rival principles of good 
and evil in opposition to each other and left it' 
problematical whether Ahura Mazda, the Wise 
Lord, or Ahriman, the spirit of evil, would 
eventually be victorious. Such a note of doubt 



1 6 The Faith and the Fellowship 

and uncertainty cannot but paralyse the efforts 
of the adherents of this teaching ; it has indeed 
done so to judge from the spiritual stagnation 
of Parsism. Mohammed rivalled all his con- 
temporaries in proclaiming with prophetic unc- 
tion the solitary sovereignty of God and in ve- 
hemently denouncing the prevalent idolatry of 
both Christian and pagan. But his teaching 
was marked and marred by fatalism, and those 
who accepted the God of Islam did so in a spirit 
of fear and in superstitious submissiveness to 
the divine demands. How different to all these 
conceptions is that set forth by Jesus Christ 
concerning the Heavenly Father! The ele- 
ments of His character are so mixed that there 
is a proportionate radiance of holiness and 
grace, of righteousness and love. Faith, such 
as Christ taught, does not acknowledge a fierce 
and furious God nor does it confess a soft and 
weak God who is ^^ destitute of moral vigour, '' 
ready to overlook blunders and perversities, 
and who acts as though He were on the verge of 
senility and second childhood. This God is not 
an aristocrat nor a tyrant, but the supreme 
sympathiser, the strong helper, and the strict 
upholder of righteousness. His majesty does 
not, however, suppress His mercy ; His grace is 
not lost in His holiness; His love is not 
obscured by His justice. Such a revelation 



The Revelation of Love ij 

not only commands tlie filial and reverential 
worship of the believer, but also persuades him 
to be inspired and guided in truth and rectitude 
by its ennobling encouragements. 

Some assert that the teachings of Jesus are 
impractical. This implies a criticism of the 
Master's knowledge and of His understanding 
of the mind and heart of man. Did He really 
call upon His followers to do that which they 
were inherently incapable of accomplishing? 
Was He parading Himself in a pedantic fash- 
ion before His hearers? Was He actually ex- 
hibiting an ability to discourse theoretically 
on virtue without any intention of expecting 
His hearers to be genuinely influenced by His 
appeals ? Did He expect them to take Him seri- 
ously? Or were they rather to accept His pro- 
nouncements with mental and moral reserva- 
tions, and so comfort themselves with the curi- 
ous thought that the ideal of Jesus was meant 
merely to charm and not to command them? 
We have only to ask ourselves these questions 
to see how absurd they are, because they reflect 
discreditably on the fair character of the Mas- 
ter. He certainly did hold up a high standard 
but nothing lower than this goal of Godlikeness 
would ever have satisfied the restless and en- 
ergetic spirit of man nor have done justice to 
his vast latent possibilities. The imperative 



1 8 The Faith and the Fellowship 



note which is so repeatedly heard in the exhor- 
tations of Jesus furthermore make it evident 
that they are capable of execution and that 
these obligatory aspects of summons to clear- 
sighted duty cannot be ignored. We can then 
show our loyalty to Him and realise the best 
in us only as we render hearty obedience with- 
out any hesitation or reservation whatsoever. 

^'Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Fa- 
ther is perfect.'^ This is the ideal for the 
Christian and it is set forth in a terse and test- 
ing style. God is the highest term and the final 
authority in life. Jesus did not care to prove 
the existence of God ; it would have been as su- 
perfluous as carrying coals to Newcastle. In 
fact none of His hearers was so dull as to 
question the reality of the divine presence. 
They did, however, differ in their understand- 
ing of the character of God. The supreme 
merit of the gospel of Jesus is that He pro- 
claimed a God of wondrous love and of unspeak- 
able goodness, the glory of whose personality 
was reflected in Him. An illustration of the 
perfection of God is furnished in Matthew, 
chapter 5. 43-48. We here learn that when the ^^ 
divine love takes possession of the life, it be-HJ 
comes a dominating principle, and wherever 
it is freely exercised, its power is irresistible. 
Nothing can withstand the magnanimity, the 



The Revelation of Love 19 

impartiality, and the generosity of spirit which 
characterise those persons who are swayed and 
strengthened by this ^^love divine, all loves ex- 
celling.'' 

God can be known and interpreted only by 
what is best in ns. The rude savage and man- 
eater conceives of a God of violent passions 
who can be appeased and honoured only as his 
insatiable appetite for cruelty is satisfied; his 
god is a magnified image of himself. The god 
of those who live under an Oriental monarchy 
is frequently thought of as despotic in power, 
tyrannical in demands, and swift to visit ven- 
geance on the disobedient. Wholly unlike these 
lower and imperfect ideas is the God and Fa- 
ther of our Lord Jesus Christ. His character 
of goodness is perfect, without any stain of bit- 
terness ; His holiness is wholesome, and stimu- 
lates the purest of energies; His love is pro- 
found and far-reaching so that no one is out- 
side the pale of His abundant and abounding 
grace. He is perfect in the sense that every 
form of excellence belongs to Him, unweakened 
by defect, unhampered by limitation, unsullied 
by failure. His inward glory finds consistent 
expression in deeds of mercy and truth, and 
the soul which contemplates His splendour is 
lost in wonder, love and praise. This ideal is 



20 The Faith and the Fellowship 

not some cold and exacting code but one that 
has been embodied in a divine Personality with 
whom we can have fellowship and who commu- 
nicates His Spirit from more to more, accord- 
ing to the measure of our spiritual sensitiveness 
and responsiveness. For let it be remembered 
that this God is not the Absolute, alone 
and apart from men amid the summits of se- 
vere solitude. He is the divine Associate of 
men, the never-failing Companion, self -reveal- 
ing and self -imparting in gracious communion. 
He is not merely a spectator of the activities of 
mankind but a sharer in all our divers experi- 
ences of weal and woe. He is personal and so 
there is intercommunication; He is ethical and 
therefore the factors of righteousness and 
truth regulate the intercourse; He is infinite 
and worthy of approach by man in the times of 
depression and weariness ; He is knowable and 
man is not left to guess his way or be in wan- 
dering mazes lost. This is the amazing reve- 
lation of love which came through Jesus Christ. 
Classic expression has been given the thought 
by Browning in lines which are familiar but 
which never fail to stir the soul. It is Karshish 
the Arab physician who is writing of his strange 
meeting with Lazarus whom Christ had raised 
from the dead: 



The Revelation of Love 21 

"The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think? 
So, the All-Great, were the All-Loving too, 
So, through the thunder comes a human voice 
Saying, ^0 heart I made, a heart beats here! 
Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself! 
Thou hast no power nor mayst conceive of mine, 
But love I gave thee, with myself to love, 
And thou must love me who have died for thee/ '' 



Perfection is a relative term when applied to 
man. There are grades and degrees of life 
from childhood np to old age ; there are various 
types of character, influenced by temperament 
and education. Holiness in man is not whole- 
ness in the sense of completion. It is a pro- 
gressive holiness, and this fact is evidenced in 
the larger output of the virtues of goodness 
and grace and in the luxuriant bearing of the 
fruits of the Spirit. It is also evident that the 
vision of the ideal grows with increasing clear- 
ness and even appeals with more exacting en- 
ergy as the character develops. Just as the 
adult has responsibilities which are unknown to 
the youth, so the mature saint realises and ful- 
fils demands which are impossible to the begin- 
ner in the Christian life. Eecall the confession 
of saints who have sounded the depths of grace 
and who are scaling the heights of sanctity, 
and you are impressed by the spirit of humility 
and of healthy aspiration: ^^Not that I have 



22 The Faith and the Fellowship 

already obtained, or am already made perfect : 
but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on 
that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ 
Jesus. ... I press on toward the goal unto 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. Let us therefore as many as are per- 
fect (full-grown) be thus minded" (Phil. 3. 12, 
13). There is no suggestion or hint of compro- 
mise in the earnest purpose to become pos- 
sessed of the blessedness of crystal purity 
which will reflect like the facets of a diamond 
the grace and glory of the eternal God. In 
unswerving obedience to this divine-human 
ideal, the growing Christian advances in sanc- 
tification of the Spirit, in sobriety of hfe and 
in sacramental service of his fellows. The 
religious is thus bound up with the ethical in 
the higher unity of the spiritual. 

What makes this summons to perfection so 
attractive lies in the fact that it is a movement 
towards renewing the image of God in us. 
However far men may have wandered, however 
much they may have failed, however numerous 
may be their shortcomings, they still remain 
the children of God. 'Tis true that the fam- 
ily likeness is very slight, but the touch of grace 
can work wonders: 

"Down in the human heart, 
Crushed by the tempter, 



The Revelation of Love 23 



Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; 

Touched by a loving heart, 

Wakened by kindness, 
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more." . 

Jesus was then not a visionary but an ideal- 
ist who thoroughly understood human nature 
when He sounded the imperative call and 
urged men to go forward with no thought of re- 
treat. The summons have not been withdrawn, 
and if we disregard them it is at our peril. 
What makes the mandate so encouraging is the 
other fact that in our endeavour to reach this 
shining summit we are aided by divine grace. 
By dependence on Him through the communion 
of prayer, by devotion to Him in consecration 
to duty, by deeds of kindness from day to day, 
we shall have more of a glowing and growing 
resemblance to God, and thus shall we adver- 
tise our filial and fraternal relationships. This 
ideal furthermore furnishes the mighty dynam- 
ic which drives the chariot wheels of lif e^ 

"On, to the bound of the waste, 
On, to the City of God." 

This revelation of the nature and concern of 
God has set up a new standard of life. The 
character of God is seen to be one of gracious 
impartiality and loving magnanimity. He deals 



24 The Faith and the Fellowship 

with men in no scant and miserly fashion. His 
large confidence in them leads Him to show a 
spirit of wondrous patience. The jnst and the 
unjust, the good and the bad are equally the re- 
cipients of His benevolence. So must the 
Christian show his love, regardless of calendar, 
country or creed, and not be satisfied with any 
minimum measure of effort. A new motive has 
also come into life and we are encouraged to 
be and to become like the Heavenly Father, 
whose we are and whom we serve. This appeal 
to all the faculties of knowing, feeling and will- 
ing is quickening in its effects, for the re- 
sponse thereto brings poise, peace and power. 
"We are thus able to submit to the new test of 
life without fear or hesitancy, because our faith 
assures us that by fellowship with God we shall 
always be at our best whatever the emergency. 
Jesus was absolutely right in proclaiming this 
gospel of perfection. We shall be wise as we 
accept it and act in filial loyalty to Him, ''in 
whom we live and move and have our being." 



CHAPTER TWO: THE GLORY OF 
CHRIST 



**The most careful scrutiny of the New Testament discloses 
no trace of a Christianity in which Jesus has any other place 
than that which is assigned Him in the faith of the historical 
Church. When the fullest allowance is made for the diversities 
of intellectual and even of moral interest which prevail in the 
different writers and the Christian societies which they address, 
there is one thing in which they are indistinguishable — the atti- 
tude of their souls to Christ. They all set Him in the same 
incomparable place. They all acknowledge to Him the same 
immeasurable debt. He determines, as no other does or can, 
all their relations to God and to each other. While His true 
manhood is unquestionably assumed, He is set as unquestionably 
on the side of reality which we call Divine and which confronts 
man; He embodies for faith that Divine love and power which 
work out man's salvation. It is the place thus assigned to 
Christ which gives its religious unity to the New Testament, 
and which has kept the Christian religion one all through its 
history. ' ' 

— James Denney: ** Jesus and the Gospel," page 329, 



CHAPTEE TWO 

THE GLOEY OF CHBIST 

JESUS made a deep impression on people 
from the very beginning of His public 
ministry. He came upon the scenes of hu- 
man life in a quiet and friendly manner. The 
first interview which He had with two of the 
disciples of John the Baptist led those two men 
to the decisive conclusion that He certainly was 
the Messiah of ancient promise. The long 
series of eager expectations which had lodged 
in the breast of lawgiver, priest, prophet and 
saint remained an inspiring ideal. In moments 
of rapt devotion when they beheld visions of 
the good time coming this arresting figure ap- 
peared upon the distant horizon. The hope of 
centuries had at last been realised and the real- 
ity was nobler and more gracious than any- 
thing which the seers of ancient time had con- 
templated. 

The Gospel of John is the latest of the New 
Testament books. It was written by the man 
who knew Jesus the longest and the most inti- 
mately. There was no doubt in his mind that 

27 



28 The Faith and the Fellowship 

Jesus is the one and only centre of the world's 
spiritual life. He is the revelation of the eter- 
nal God. His inward nature and character, His 
Providence and Fatherhood, His purpose, will 
and power were made known through the di- 
vine-human personality of our blessed Lord 
and Saviour. John wrote to make this truth 
clear, and this conviction was shared by the en- 
tire Church of the first century. The message 
of the epistle to the Colossians is that Christ 
is absolutely indispensable to humanity and 
that He is adequately sufficient to meet all the 
various needs of the higher life. ^^In Him 
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily''; 
that is to say, the perfection and glory of God 
were permanently embodied in the Incarnate 
Christ. He is therefore the completest expres- 
sion of the divine thought; He is the best mani- 
festation of the absolute God; He is the final 
utterance of the eternal Spirit. What God is 
can be clearly and thoroughly understood in 
Christ, for the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God has been given in the face of Jesus 
Christ. 

Those who came in contact with Jesus were 
moved more by His goodness than by His gen- 
ius. This latter is a question of degrees and it 
produces admiration by the exhibition of bril- 



The Glory of Christ 29 

liance of parts and of exceptional ability. 
Goodness, on the other hand, is Godlikeness and 
it has to do with character which in the case 
of Christ was of such overwhelming grandeur 
as to be deeply impressive. ^^ Never man so 
spake''; ^^We never saw it on this wise"; 
^^ Truly this was a son of God" — these were tes- 
timonies from outsiders. The stirring confes- 
sion: ^^Thou art the Christ, the Son of the liv- 
ing God" is a testimony from inside, which 
strikingly expresses the consistent attitude to 
Him of the entire New Testament. All this 
is in perfect harmony with His own claims: 
^^He that hath seen me hath seen the Father 
also"; ^'AU things that the Father hath are 
mine"; ^^The Son of man hath authority on 
earth to forgive sins"; ^^Come unto Me all ye 
who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest." He who spoke these words had 
either inexcusable conceit or was pitifully self- 
deceived, or He was gloriously justified in ut- 
tering them. The last conclusion is the most 
satisfactory, and by it the Church has stood. 
The symmetrical portrayal of character in 
the Beatitudes has never been surpassed. As 
an ideal it cannot be improved and it is, more- 
over, appropriate to the dreamy Oriental as 
well as the deed-loving Occidental. The best 
efforts of the finest men have, however, fallen 



30 The Faith and the Fellowship 

far short of this standard. But in Jesus the 
ideal has become actual in a way that satisfies 
the intellect, gratifies the feelings, pacifies the 
spirit, and inspires the will of man to make the 
consciousness of Jesus the test by which to reg- 
ulate his whole life. It is worth noting that He 
alone of all the sons of men had the glowing 
experience of moral and spiritual unity with 
God. Thoreau once remarked that he was able 
to say like Jesus : *^I and the Father are one," 
and when it was reported to Carlyle the old 
sage replied: ^^Ah! but Jesus got the world 
to believe Him. ' ^ They even went further and 
accepted Him as the possessor of all the grace 
and wisdom of God. Since He was so closely 
akin to God He has also shown Himself to be 
in blessed kinship with men. 

Jesus thus occupies a position of singular su- 
premacy. All attempts to place the other teach- 
ers of religion by the side of Him have failed. 
Every comparison becomes a contrast. The 
great seers and reformers are provincial while 
He alone is universal. Their message was col- 
oured and influenced by their respective na- 
tional traditions. They are like exotic plants 
which do not thrive in a foreign land as well 
as they do in their native climes. Confucius 
has no appeal outside of China ; Mohammed is 
out of place in America; Buddha is ineffective 



The Glory of Christ 31 

anywhere in the Occident; but Jesus is equally 
at home in any and every Continent, and He re- 
markably fits every conceivable case. He at- 
tracts men of divers conditions to Himself, and 
whatever their temperaments or aspirations, He 
always completes their lives. Look at the gos- 
pels for illustration. What different and even 
contrasted types were drawn to this magnetic 
personality. The Eoman centurion and the Sa- 
maritans of Sychar, the Syrophoenician woman 
and Martha of Bethany, the publicans and the 
despised as well as the pious and devout who 
waited for the consolation of Israel — all found 
Him to be satisfactory. It is still the same. 
The labouring man and the professional man, 
the outcast and the elite, the upper crust of so- 
ciety and the submerged tenth have found that 
they not only need Jesus but they also fall in 
love with Him as soon as He is fairly presented 
to them. 

Here is another reason why He is so indis- 
pensable. What the great religious teachers 
taught can be understood regardless of their 
persons. The law which was given by Moses 
would not lose its sanction if it came through 
some other authority. We know little of Plato 
and Socrates, but their teachings can be ac- 
cepted without any consideration of them. The 



32 The Faith and the Fellowship 

pity and compassion preached by Buddha have 
an impressive appeal apart from his charac- 
ter. The duty of submissiveness to Allah is as 
imperative by whomsoever it might have been 
enforced. The practical sayings of Confucius 
are valid even if we know nothing of the man 
who uttered them. But none of these condi- 
tions is possible with Jesus and His gospel. 
He is the best part of His message. ' ' Christ is 
Christianity'^ is a familiar and emphatic 
phrase, and it expresses a truth which we can- 
not fail to recognise as soon as we think of 
the Sermon on the Mount or the discourses in 
the upper room. The resplendent excellence of 
the Beatitudes is a reflection of His own char- 
acter and what He said can be understood only 
in the light of the crystal purity and celestial 
perfection of His wondrous person. Indeed, 
the greatness of His preaching lay in the fact 
that the subject was Himself. He was not only 
greater than all He said and did but everything 
centred in Him. Unlike those others who spoke 
of God and destiny, in the case of Jesus it was 
not the acceptance of the message but of the 
messenger which gave life eternal. 

This distinction is worth emphasising be- 
cause herein is the signal secret of the power 
of Christianity. The New Testament gives the 
central place to Christ not because He was the 



The Glory of Christ 33 

bringer of a new revelation from God nor chief- 
ly as the imparter of inspiration for life, nor 
as the promulgator of a new and better legisla- 
tion. The great reason is that He is conspicu- 
ously the giver of redemption from sin made 
possible by the sacrifice of His own life. And 
so all references to Him are marked by enthu- 
siastic gratefulness, undoubted loyalty, and un- 
divided love. Paul has said it for them all in 
words which have the glow of adoration and 
devotion: ^^Who loved me and gave Himself 
up for me.'' Not only could every member of 
the early Church have heartily endorsed it, but 
every member in good standing in the Church 
in every century could also say so with equal 
heartiness of spirit. 

The importance of Jesus for the Christian 
life is furthermore seen in the theological con- 
troversies which disturbed the Church from 
time to time. They were not unmixed evils be- 
cause they compelled the leaders to construct 
adequate conceptions of the person and work 
of Christ. Those people then who say that it 
does not make much difference what a man be- 
heves so long as his life is right, do not under- 
stand what they are talking about. Had the 
Church accepted such a conclusion, its testi- 
mony to truth would have been vitiated because 



34 The Faith and the Fellowship 

of satisfaction with half-truths which are al- 
ways more dangerous than outspoken errors. 
Wherever a ^^fulP^ Christianity has been ac- 
cepted the claims of Christ have been worthily 
recognised and Christians have regulated their 
lives by the thought of what their Saviour and 
Lord would have them to do. Thus only can 
the vitality and energy of the Church be in- 
creased and its influence felt as a potent power 
in the industrial, social, and practical life of 
the world, in community, national, and interna- 
tional relations. 

It was the experience of redemption which 
the Christians received from Christ that led 
them to hold such an exalted conception of Him. 
They argued that one who had done so much 
for them in bringing them out of darkness into 
light, in giving them a sense of liberty from 
the control of sin, in bringing the distant God 
near to them and making Him very real in their 
lives, in imparting to them a humanitarian view 
of life, far bigger than what is to be found in 
the ideals of nationalism; that one who had 
given them nothing short of spiritual emanci- 
pation and enlightenment must be out of the 
ordinary. He surely has exceptional qualifica- 
tions and endowments and is the Son of God 
in a way that belongs exclusively to Him. This 
then was a severely practical test. He whose 



The Glory of Christ 35 

works were like God must have the spirit and 
potency of God in unique measure. In Him the 
fulness of the divine grace has found a per- 
manent abode and we can now rejoice in the 
love and kindness of God made known to us in 
Jesus and by Him. It was for these reasons 
that the Christians of former days gave Jesus 
the place of primacy in their lives. They ar- 
rived at their conclusions by the exercise of 
consecrated thought and by the energy of a 
redemptive experience. We cannot, however, 
rely merely on their triumphant verdicts. It 
certainly encourages us to know what honours 
were given to the blessed Saviour by previous 
generations. But it is imperative that we in 
turn should arrive at our own decisions, in 
view of the thinking and struggling and yearn- 
ing after God of our own times. 

Take a large view of the influence of Christ 
throughout the world and you will find how ex- 
cellently fitted He is to lead men up the altar 
stairs to God. Those who have recently vis- 
ited the Orient to study religious conditions 
there have brought back word that Jesus Christ 
is the only hopeful basis for a better Oriental 
civilisation. As we think of Western lands 
where the situation is one of tragic chaos at 
the present time we are compelled to acknowl- 



36 The Faith and the Fellowship 

edge that Jesus Christ is the only unifying 
force and redeeming influence of Occidental 
civilisation. The world, both East and West, 
most urgently and sorely needs Him. Time has 
wrought many changes in the course of the cen- 
turies. Ideas which at one time were accepted 
have now become out of date ; arguments which 
were once powerful no longer convince; meth- 
ods of work which were effective have lost their 
cunning to achieve results; in short, science 
and invention have made for us a new world. 
But Jesus is still the same. He continues to be 
the only satisfying and secure Saviour, and He 
is more deeply and widely appreciated to-day 
than ever before. 

"That one Face, far from vanish, rather grows, 
Or decomposes but to recompose/' 

There are different types of Christianity — 
philosophical, sacerdotal, mystical evangel- 
ical — but they all centre in Christ. In every 
age, from the times of the apostles, men have 
differed in questions of polity and policy. This 
is to be expected when we remember the divers 
traits, temperaments, and traditions of peo- 
ple. We learn from the book of Acts that 
among the first followers of Christ some suf- 
fered from national prejudices, others had re- 
ligious scruples, and others again had a nar- 



The Glory of Christ 37 

rowing outlook for the Gospel. But not one of 
them had the least doubt that Christ was su- 
premely necessary and wholesomely effective 
for life and death and all things. They bore a 
direct relationship to Him. It was His com- 
mandments they obeyed, it was His honour 
they sought, it was His spirit of love they 
showed, it was His power to save from sin they 
advertised. No one bearing the name of 
Christian can depart from this noble standard. 
The modern Christian has his many denomina- 
tions and his multiplying sects which are a 
weariness to the flesh and an embarrassment to 
the advance of the spiritual life and the spread 
of the truth, as it is in Jesus. But in spite of 
these unworthy divisions and through them 
there is seen the underlying unity of thought 
concerning the strong Saviourhood of Christ. 

Wherever the vision of Jesus has been uncov- 
ered wonderful benefits have been obtained. 
This is witnessed to not only by the voice of the 
first century but also by the many-toned voices 
of twenty centuries which tell with joy and 
gladness that, ^^None but Christ can satisfy.'' 
Those who have been tempted and smitten by 
sin, those who have tried and failed in the 
struggle, those who have laboured and lost in 
the conflict, those who have given up hope and 



38 The Faith and the Fellowship 

are filled with despair, have heard Christ 
speaking to their souls and have stood up with 
new vigour and confidence and have taken up 
the tasks of life because He has redeemed their 
lives and given them a new start. Never has 
He disappointed any soul who came to Him in 
distress and sorrow: never has He cast aside 
any who lifted the eye of faith to Him; never 
has any returned empty-handed or dissatisfied 
from His enriching presence. They all confess 
gratefully and buoyantly that by the grace of 
Christ it has been possible to weather the 
storms and to survive the wreckage and to 
stand firm at their places of duty. This appeal 
of a many-sided experience from every age and 
clime is quite complete and final. Let us in 
like manner surrender to Christ and we also 
shall find that He is exceedingly precious. 

This then is the glory of Christ. It is the 
glory of His character of perfect spirituality 
and oneness with God. It is the glory of His 
conquest over sin and death by the sacrifice on 
the cross. It is the glory of His concern for 
the redemption of the entire human race. It is 
the glory of His companionship with men in 
the straits and struggles of daily living. It is 
the glory of His coming crowning, when all 
nations and peoples will acknowledge Him 
Lord of all. God speed that day. 



CHAPTER THREE: THE FACT OF 
REDEMPTION 



*^Let us not mistake the kindly fruits of the cross for the 
moral principle of it. The fruits will not give the principle, 
but the principle will give the fruits. And the more we are 
preoccupied with social righteousness so much the more we are 
driven to that center where the whole righteousness of God and 
man found consummation, and adjustment, and a power and a 
career, in the saving judgment of Christ ^s cross. Public liberty 
rests on inward freedom; and the cross alone gives moral free- 
dom, and moral independence, to the mass of men, who were 
left to slavery even by the heroic moral aristocracy of stoicism. 
It is the cross that makes moral worth an infectious power, 
keeps character from being self-contained, and gives a moral 
guarantee of a steady social future. The cross is the spring, 
not of self-possessed and individualist righteousness, but of 
that creative and contagious goodness which makes possible 
the social state. Only at the center of the cross does the man 
find himself in his kind, and both in God. A creative, mission- 
ary, and social ethic springs only from religion; and it springs 
most from the religion which is able to clothe us with the power 
of the creative, loving, outgoing God.'' 

—P. T. Forsyth: ''The Cruciality of the Cross/' page 42. 



CHAPTER THEEE 

THE FACT OF KEDEMPTIOK 

IT is very noteworthy that the Cross is the 
outstanding symbol of Christianity. It thus 
speaks to the deepest desires and the pro- 
foundest purposes of humanity and gives ex- 
pression to the distinctive message of the 
gospel. It is of little consequence that the cross 
was called the ^^key of the Nile" with which 
Osiris opened the fountains of the South and 
poured out the life-giving waters over the land. 
It is further of less significance that the cross 
was regarded as a synonym of infamy and dis- 
honour by Roman and Jew because criminals 
were hung upon it and it was thus associated 
with lawlessness and iniquity. Since that dark 
hour on Calvary, when the Sacrifice was offered 
for the world's redemption, the cross has been 
transfigured and glorified for it quickens peni- 
tence and leads to holiness. In connection with 
this sublime symbol of our Faith recall some 
other distinctive symbols. The sword is the 
symbol of force and we associate it with Mo- 
hammedanism, whose sacred book, the Koran, 

41 



42 The Faith and the Fellowship 

commends its use as a worthy weapon in the 
hands of the faithful. A book is the symbol 
of learning which we might associate with Con- 
fucianism, without at all endorsing the scholas- 
tic crudities of that backward system. A build- 
ing is the sign of civilisation and of material 
advance. Christianity in the early centuries 
made its way, in spite of the imperial opposi- 
tion of Eome, not by relying upon the sword 
but by trusting Christ to whom His followers 
were outspokenly consecrated. They did not 
have any book which they could offer to the 
sceptic or critic as a rational exposition of their 
faith, for the New Testament canon had not 
yet been formed. The Christians of that age 
had no separate buildings in which they could 
meet to worship Christ as God; they met in 
private homes, in forests and catacombs, and 
in many another undesirable because uncom- 
fortable place. They, however, gave little 
thought to these external conditions because 
of the spirit of flaming devotion which inspired 
both their worship of Christ and their testi- 
mony to Christ. Indeed, in those days of un- 
surpassed Christian courage and invincible 
persistence, the Christ-filled character was 
more than the Christless circumstances. From 
that day down to the present it is the Cross of 
Christ which has spoken at once of heroic suf- 



The Fact of Redemption 43 

f ering, unselfisli sacrifice, and practical service, 
which has also stood forth as the impressive 
declaration of the gracious message of Chris- 
tianity. 

The New Testament shows what topic re- 
ceived conspicuous and central attention in the 
thought of the early Church. Fully one-third 
of the four Gospels is taken up with matters 
relating to the Passion. This was no doubt in 
response to the demand of the Church which 
was never tired of meditating with deep rev- 
erence and holy gratitude on the events which 
brought redemption. Nothing so gripped the 
heart and governed the motives and guided the 
lives of the Christians like the searching and 
saving truth of Christ and Him crucified. 
When they expressed their convictions it was 
in the form of eager ascriptions of praise and 
thanksgiving. The doxologies of the Book of 
Eevelation, for instance, confess the Christian 
faith far more profoundly and accurately than 
even the discussions of Paul in the epistle to 
the Eomans. Who are these praising God 
with such unanimity and heartiness of soul? 
^^ These are they that come out of the great 
tribulation, and they washed their robes, and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb" 
(Eev. 7. 14). How did they achieve their sig- 
nal victories? ^^And they overcame because of 



44 The Faith and the Fellowship 

the blood of the Lamb and because of the word 
of their testimony; and they loved not their 
life even unto death'' (chap. 12. 11). How did 
they feel towards Christ? Their song ex- 
pressed their testimony: ^^Unto Him that 
loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His 
blood ; and He made us to be a Kingdom, to be 
priests unto His God and Father; to Him be 
the glory and the dominion for ever and ever'' 
(chap. 1. 5). This same spirit of exultant 
gratulation is heard in the Apostle's confes- 
sion : ^^But far be it for me to glory, save in the 
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which 
the world hath been crucified unto me, and I 
unto the world. ' ' And there is not a writer of 
the New Testament but will heartily endorse it. 
We can therefore say that it is the Cross which 
gives distinction and distinctiveness to Chris- 
tianity. It is not only its essential truth but 
its ^^ organising idea," and is, in the words of 
Principal Fairbairn, ^^ without any parallel in 
the ideas and customs either of those natural 
religions which make most of sacrifice, or of 
those which we are accustomed to compare 
with the Christian." It is, moreover, just this 
central theme of permanent interest and indis- 
pensable worth which, when accepted, clarifies 
the vision, makes unselfish the motives, en- 
larges the horizon, and commissions men to 



The Fact of Redemption 45 

carry the evangel of good tidings unto the ut- 
termost parts of the earth, and to offer it to 
the human race, regardless of ethnic differ- 
ences, national barriers, or religious ani- 
mosities. 

The unique speech of the Cross is that of 
sacrifice, even the self-sacrifice of God the Fa- 
ther in the person of ^ ' His only begotten Son,' ^ 
for the explicit purpose of destroying the fatal 
effects of sin. He was moved thereto by a love 
so profound that its ethical concern was as in- 
tense as the all-animating religious and spir- 
itual determination. And how comprehensive 
is this love, seen in sympathy with distress, in 
succour of the needy, in suffering with the err- 
ing, in saving the sinner, and in sanctifying 
unto perfect righteousness and holiness of life 
and action. We thus think of the Cross as 
setting forth the persuasive principle not only 
of love divine but also of the life divine. The 
apostle knew how much this meant to him, for 
the redemptive deed of Christ had touched the 
deepest depths and the highest aspirations of 
his soul, and what he had experienced of satis- 
faction and joy was a blessing offered to all 
and urgently needed by all, that they may live 
in the spirit and power of the Cross. This gos- 
pel has never failed to recreate the individual 
and social conscience, to deepen the sense of 



46 The Faith and the Fellowship 

obligation, to rekindle the waning zeal of 
Christians, and to place before the Chnrch an 
imperious vision of urgent and compelling 
duty. 

So many-sided is the character of Christ that 
we can regard Him in several ways and honour 
Him for the opulence of His grace. But let us 
be careful that we do not confuse any partial 
aspects, however valuable, with that which is 
central and vitally supreme. A Christianity 
which holds up Christ as a Pattern, however 
symmetrical and complete in character; or 
which exalts Him as a martyr even though 
the noblest of them all; or which praises Him 
as a moralist of exceptionally high and exact- 
ing ethical standards; or which honours Him 
as a teacher with charm, wisdom and authority 
— a Christianity which does only these things 
appeals to the world as a humanitarian system, 
the best of its kind; but it falls far short of 
being the religion of full and far-reaching re- 
demption. It is lacking in the Divine afflatus 
which has given holy courage, irresistible 
energy, the swing of conquest, and the expe- 
rience of achievement so characteristic of those 
who have accepted the Divine-human Christ of 
the entire New Testament testimony. The 
lesser message has always proved to be ineffec- 
tual. It has no word of cheer to the despond- 



The Fact of Redemption 47 

ent, nor of peace to the disconsolate, nor of 
pardon to the distracted. The soul which has 
been lashed by sin and whose life has been 
scarred by evil passions and which is suffer- 
ing from moral anaemia and a paralysed will 
surely needs something far more dynamic than 
wise counsels, gracious ideas, or beautiful sen- 
timents. This necessary divine energy is ob- 
tained by men not at Bethlehem which tells of 
the Incarnation of Christ, nor at Capernaum 
which reminds us of His teaching, nor on Mt. 
Tabor which holds us in confusion as we wit- 
ness the Transfiguration, but at Calvary, where 
the bleeding heart of the Son of God can 
stay our wounds and heal our sorrows and 
strengthen our purposes of righteousness and 
enable us to translate them into deeds which 
breathe the spirit of liberty, equality and 
fraternity, raised to the highest power. This 
experience is not only that of the first century ; 
it belongs to all the Christian centuries. If we 
take the time to listen we can hear a vast multi- 
tude whom no man can number, speaking in 
their several languages and dialects, rejoicing 
in the knowledge that they have been brought 
out of darkness into light by the merits of 
Christ's redemption. 

Take then a comprehensive view of the 
world's history and you will see a reflection of 



48 The Faith and the Fellowship 

the Cross of Christ wherever self-denial is 
practised, sacrij&ce experienced, benevolence ex- 
hibited, and enduring service rendered. The 
great missionary enterprise which has done so 
much for the backward races no less than for 
those which are more favoured has been advo- 
cated and sustained by those who were inspired 
by Christ and Him crucified, just as Paul him- 
self had been. Christ without the crown of 
thorns is Anti-Christ, and Christianity without 
the cross is a shallow caricature. Such a per- 
version sits lightly to the pain and anguish and 
despair of life, and its optimism is a wretched 
mockery of the soul in trouble. ^^ There are 
three steps in the Santa Scala which the race 
is slowly and painfully ascending: barbarism, 
where men cultivate the body; civilisation, 
where they cultivate the intellect; holiness, 
where they cultivate the soul. There is for 
the whole Eace, for each nation, for every in- 
dividual, the age of Homer, the age of Socra- 
tes, the age of Jesus. Beyond the age of Jesus 
nothing can be desired or imagined, for it runs 
on those lofty table-lands where the soul lives 
with God.'' And such fellowship is possible 
only for those who submit to ^^the culture of 
the cross,'' in the words of John Watson. The 
quotation recalls an incident in the life of Mat- 
thew Arnold. He attended service in the Sef- 



The Fact of Redemption 49 

ton Park Presbyterian Chnrch, Liverpool, and 
heard a sermon on the Cross of Christ by the 
minister, Dr. Watson, which deeply impressed 
him. One of the hymns sung was : 

"When I survey the wondrous Cross 
On which the Prince of Glory died." 

Arnold returned to the home of his brother- 
in-law, and there repeated the lines, saying 
that the hymn was the finest in the language. 
^^Yes,'' he added, ^^the Cross remaineth, and 
in the straits of the soul makes its ancient ap- 
peal.'' That afternoon he met with an accident 
which proved fatal. 

There is nothing that can satisfy the deep in- 
stincts of the human spirit and remove the 
sense of spiritual emptiness like this message 
of the Cross which announces the rare grace 
and the wondrous goodness of God, and offers 
the tender sympathy, the generous love and 
the courageous confidence of Christ. The fact 
of the redemptive death of Christ is so compre- 
hensive and catholic a truth that no single 
theory nor all the theories of the Atonement 
can adequately explain it. One of the pathetic 
aspects of the theological history of this doc- 
trine has not been the keen dialectical skill 
shown by its exponents but rather their insist- 
ence that others should view this truth from 



50 The Faith and the Fellowship 

their particular angle of vision and should ac- 
cept their interpretation as though it were final, 
on pain of being exiled from the pale of their 
fellowship. And the zeal in emphasising their 
theory has often manifested a spirit utterly 
foreign and even antagonistic to the fraternal 
gospel of the Cross. The more impressive ex- 
position is that which is given in the lives of 
men and women who pass their days under the 
shadow of the Cross and who are controlled by 
its purifying and pervasive influence. During 
the Boxer rebellion in China the native Chris- 
tians were not asked whether they were Ang- 
licans, Presbyterians, Methodists and the like. 
Their persecutors drew the figure of a cross on 
the ground and asked them : ' ' Will you trample 
upon thatr' Their refusal advertised their 
faith and loyalty. In comparison with this 
strategic test, our denominational distinctions 
have only a transitory value, however revered 
may be the associations which affectionately 
cling to them. 

We might just as well quickly make up our 
minds that the pressing question of Christian 
union will not be solved by ecclesiastical courts 
of arbitration, nor merely by a better appre- 
ciation of each other's respective and distinc- 
tive contributions to the sum total of Christian 
thought and life, nor even by methods of com- 



The Fact of Redemption 51 

promise which tend to devitalise the intrinsic 
truth. It will be, if at all, effectively and se- 
curely done only as the respective parties of 
approachment exhibit the sacrificial and sancti- 
fying spirit which we think of in connection 
with the Cross. This may involve the renounc- 
ing of cherished traditions which in the larger 
perspective are only of relative value and of 
provincial importance ; but in their place there 
will come a sharing of the fulness of spiritual 
life to enrich the character. This will be a far 
greater advantage than the minor gains that 
may otherwise accrue to denominationalism. 
What is most urgently needed then is not 
a new theory of the Cross but repeated demon- 
strations of the practice of the Cross. This is 
equally needed for the solution of the hydra- 
headed social problem. When those who glory 
in the Cross have sensitised consciences they 
will be willing to take a fearless stand on behalf 
of economic readjustments, the industrial re- 
generation of society, and the outspoken expul- 
sion of social iniquity. And this they will do 
although it may require the sacrifice of posi- 
tion, wealth and even life. If Christ ended on 
Calvary because His prophetic protests against 
entrenched evils were resented, it surely can- 
not be expected that His followers will escape 
censure and perchance the loss of all things, 



52 The Faith and the Fellowship 

even life. But such a prospect has not been 
disheartening or terrifying to the sworn com- 
rades of the Cross. They have been able to 
say after the noble Apostle: ^^I hold not my 
life of any account as dear unto myself, so that 
I may accomplish my course, and the ministry 
which I received from the Lord Jesus, to tes- 
tify the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 
20. 24). The saints, prophets, and martyrs of 
all the centuries would endorse this determina- 
tion as expressive of their single aim as the 
servants of Christ. It may be a refined form 
of selfishness to cling to the Cross, said one, 
but that which is more imperative and bene- 
ficial is to carry the Cross and boldly and fear- 
lessly to submit to renunciation for the redemp- 
tion of the individual, society and the world. 
In this consideration, we cannot avoid a refer- 
ence to the war. We are optimistic enough to 
believe that a bigger and better Europe will 
come out of this world conflict, and that the 
inevitable sufferings will make clearer the ideas 
of the higher nationalism and internationalism, 
which will be established on a basis of faith and 
fraternalism. The spirit of the Cross with its 
redemptive passion will then come to its own. 
If we would hasten that blessed day, we should 
be able to say with the blind poet-preacher 



The Fact of Redemption 53 

Matlieson who learned in suffering what he 
taught in song: 

"0 Cross that liftest up my head, 
I dare not ask to fly from thee; 
I lay in dust life's glory dead, 
And from the ground there blossoms red 
Life that shall endless be." 



^'^-' 



CHAPTER FOUR: THE CHRIS- 
TIAN'S INSPIRATION 



*' Where men believe that an ordinary human being can be 
temporarily transformed by the presence within him of a spirit, 
the very belief produces its own evidence. If the tenet of the 
holy spirit rested on nothing else, it would have filled a smaller 
place in Christian thought. But when Paul speaks of the holy 
spirit whereby the Christians are sealed, calling it now the 
spirit of God and now the spirit of Jesus, he is referring to a 
prof ounder experience. Explain conversion as we may, the word 
represents a real thing. Men were changed, and were conscious 
of it. Old desires passed away and a new life began, in which 
passion took a new direction, finding its center of warmth and 
light, not in morality, not in religion, but in God as revealed 
in Jesus Christ. 'To me to live is Christ,' cried Paul, giving 
words to the experience of countless others. Life had a new 
center; and duty, pain and death were turned to gladness. 
The early Christian was conscious of a new spirit within him. 
It was by this spirit that they could cry 'Abba, Father'; it 
was the spirit that guided them into all truth ; it was the spirit 
that united them to God, that set them free from the law of sin 
and death, that meant life and peace and joy and holiness.'' 

— T. E, Glover: '* The Conflict of Beligions in the Early 
Eoman Em-pvre/' page ISO. 



CHAPTER FOUR 

THE CHKISTIAIT's INSPIEATIOl^r 

THEEE was a swift turn in the tide of 
affairs, dramatic in its suddenness, in 
the experience of the disciples three 
days after the crucifixion. This change was in- 
tensified after the day of Pentecost. Men who 
were fearful and timid in the presence of ec- 
clesiastical dignitaries and civil authorities 
assumed a courageous attitude. They now had 
nothing for which to apologise but something 
valuable to announce. They spoke in a positive 
spirit, they acted in a decisive manner, they 
exercised a most stimulating influence, favour- 
able and unfavourable, on those who heard 
them. What was the cause of this radical dif- 
ference by which men went from one extreme 
of fearfulness and anxiety to the opposite of 
fearlessness and confidence? How did it come 
to pass that a man like Peter who denied his 
Master when he was challenged by a servant 
girl subsequently, when he was threatened by 
the religious leaders of Jerusalem answered 
boldly and showed that he could not be af- 

57 



58 The Faith and the Fellowship 

frighted into subservience? Why did a man 
like Stephen allow himself to be stoned to 
death, and others expose themselves to perse- 
cution and privation so much so that they were 
driven away from home and friends? These 
questions demand an answer as soon as we turn 
over the pages of the New Testament. 

The accepted explanation of the Church is 
more satisfactory than many of the hypothet- 
ical surmises of a superficial rationalism. The 
disciples were brought out of darkness into 
light through Christ's stupendous victory over 
death. They did not at once realise how re- 
markable was the achievement. At first they 
doubted the gladsome assurance and even hesi- 
tated to receive the risen Christ. It was only 
to a few that his spiritualised presence was 
more real and intense than in the days of his 
flesh. Many of the doubts, confusions and un- 
certainties were, however, set at rest after the 
Pentecostal outpouring, when they were filled 
with the Holy Spirit and received a moral and 
spiritual empowerment which gave them sur- 
prising unity and stability in the face of the 
severest odds. 

Let us briefly consider the facts relating to 
the day of Pentecost. The disciples had seen 
their risen Lord and Master, but no longer was 
He with them, and yet He had promised to re- 



The Christian s Inspiration 59 

turn with greater spiritual power. This was 
the memorable event which they were expect- 
ing in the Upper Eoom. As usual Jerusalem 
was filled with pilgrims from all parts of the 
empire, who had come to celebrate the feast of 
Pentecost, and there was a look of eager ex- 
pectancy on all faces. On the morning of the 
day of celebration these hopes of their fellow- 
countrymen were shared by the disciples of 
Jesus only in an intenser and more fervent 
form. It is very likely that the offering of the 
first fruits at Pentecost led them to conclude 
that the event of epochal importance was nigh. 
They were all united in the fellowship of faith, 
hope and love ; their souls were stirred by the 
enthusiasm of expectation; they were in a re- 
ceptive mood for the Spirit of the Highest to 
come upon them and take controlling posses- 
sion of them. The strategic hour had at last 
struck and the fulfilment of the ancient prom- 
ises was about to be accomplished. Fire is one 
of the symbols of the divine presence ; the wind 
is a symbol of the divine operations; and the 
tongue is the medium of speech and communi- 
cation. How vivid and picturesque is the de- 
scription of the Pentecostal experience of these 
disciples! The doors and windows of their 
spirits were thrown wide open and there came 
in the Spirit of the Holy God and of the living 



6o The Faith and the Fellowship 

Christ. The welcome meeting of human and 
divine was a rousing one, startling in its ef- 
fects, verging on the sensational, as it certainly 
was spectacular and demonstrative in its mani- 
festations. 

Far more important than the outward exhi- 
bitions was the clear assurance that the blessed 
Master had kept His word and had come back 
to them with spiritual glory and fulness to 
abide with them for ever. No longer then 
would they be helpless and alone but they 
would have this gracious presence from whom 
they need be never separated as long as they 
show the loyalty of love. Theirs would also 
be the wonderful privilege of guidance at the 
cross roads, of courage before threatening 
fears, of advance in the face of subtle opposi- 
tion. Indeed they would be equipped for every 
need, and if their spirits would only keep in 
tune with the Infinite there will be absolutely 
no demand for which a supply would not be 
forthcoming. It was in the strength of this 
experience which grew from more to more that 
the disciples performed the work which is re- 
corded of them in the Acts. They were not 
only made aware of the reality of the spiritual 
presence of Him who had said, ^^Lo, I am with 
you alway"; but they also confessed their faith 



The Christian s Inspiration 6 1 

in the winning words, ^^ Jesus Christ, the same 
yesterday, to-day and for ever." In Mark's 
Gospel, there is a concise summary of the life 
and work of the early Church: ^^And they went 
forth and preached everywhere, the Lord work- 
ing with them, and confirming the word by the 
signs that followed." 

The history of the Church offers a series of 
most remarkable illustrations how the living 
Christ has been at work through the centuries. 
He has brought men into fellowship with God 
and given them the vision of the beauty of 
holiness and the holiness of beauty, and the 
thrilling experience of the forgiveness of sins. 
He has imparted strength when the pressure of 
temptation was severe, when the oppression of 
enmity was intense, when the bitterness of 
failure was galling, when the darkness of dis- 
couragement was terrifying. Yes, when these 
saints have not known which way to turn and 
had come up against a blank wall and were on 
the point of giving up in despair, then they 
heard the voice of cheer speaking to them, and 
they felt the touch of power stimulating them, 
and they stood up with boldness and courage 
to encounter danger and trial with the assur- 
ance that they would be more than conquerors 
through Him who loved them. 



62 The Faith and the Fellowship 

"Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest 
Cannot confound nor doubt him nor deny: 
Yea with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, 
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.'' 

Herein is the distinctively unique feature of 
Christianity. The relation that exists between 
the living Christ and his followers is vital, di- 
rect and inseparable. Whatever the Christian 
is or may be he attributes to the grace of God 
mediated through the divine Spirit. The more 
he advances in insight and understanding and 
the maturer this experience becomes, he finds 
that intercourse is indispensable with the 
Heavenly Father who is the source of life and 
with the Holy Saviour who is the giver of re- 
demption. In this way alone can the separate 
threads of life be gathered up and therewith be 
woven a rich fabric of character to adorn the 
palace of the King for ever. As the Buddhist 
becomes more deeply initiated into the teach- 
ings of Gautama he can assert his independence 
of his teacher. But at no time can the Christian 
dispense with the vital companionship of Christ 
who is the beginning and the end, the Alpha 
and the Omega of every believer, who has given 
Him the place of primacy in thought and de- 
votion and service. Through age after age 
and in successive generations Christ has 



The Christian s Inspiration 63 

shown His sympathetic power to satisfy all 
needs : 

^^In every condition — in sickness, in health, 
In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth.'' 

He has done this in the power of the blessed 
Holy Spirit who has time and again taken of 
the things of Christ and shown them nnto 
those who have surrendered themselves to His 
motions and goings. Think of the illumination 
of mind which has enabled the Church to inter- 
pret life anew and with an accent peculiarly 
suited to the demands of each separate genera- 
tion and nation. The appeal has always been 
made to the many-sided character of Christ, 
and peoples of divers temperaments and tradi- 
tions have made Him the test by which they 
have regulated their activities. Those who look 
with disapproval upon the pleasures of life and 
frown upon enjoyment and who believe that 
perfection is attainable through cloistered se- 
clusion have appealed to Him for support ; and 
yet we do not think of Him as the ascetic Christ. 
Others who rejoice in the ministry of art and 
make of beauty and harmony a religious cult, 
and fawn on dilettantism in art and culture 
have also quoted Him ; but we do not therefore 
conclude that He is the aesthetic Christ. He is 
indeed very much more. Let us say that He is 



64 The Faith and the Fellowship 

the catholic Christ, the universal and compre- 
hensive Christ, who responds to the qnest of 
the soul whatever its peculiar necessities may 
be. Through Him we can understand the com- 
forting truth of the Fatherhood of God and the 
supplementary truth of the Brotherhood of 
man. As He interprets God to man and man 
to himself and men to each other, men find 
peace and joy in believing, in an atmosphere 
which is suffused with a celestial light. All 
this is without doubt the work of the Holy 
Spirit in and through those who have intel- 
ligently and openly and withal courageously 
entered the doors which have led into wider 
and more fruitful fields of service. 

The Church has never followed stereotyped 
methods of work. Some leaders have been 
prone to conclude that the voice of the past 
must literally control the decisions of the pres- 
ent. This short-sighted outlook has been fre- 
quently set aside by the over-ruling Providence 
of God. The backward look spells cowardice, 
for it means that we hesitate to fight new con- 
ditions. The downward look expresses guilt 
and it implies that we are afraid to look 
squarely at the facts. It is the upward and 
forward look which always breathes courage. 
We believe in the Holy Ghost, in the present 
inspirations of God, and so we hold that to-day 



The Christian s Inspiration 65 

is as mucli alive with God as any yesterday. 
We are also optimistic enough to persuade our- 
selves that to-morrow will be yet more full of 
God than any other time in the history of the 
world. 

In the early centuries the Christians did not 
hesitate to appropriate the best in the pagan 
faiths and cults and to give to these borrowed 
contributions an enrichment possible only to 
the religion of the Incarnate Christ. Feasts 
and ceremonies as well as temples and customs 
were baptised into Christianity and the result, 
with some few exceptions, was healthy. This 
was done under the conviction that God was 
witnessing through the upward yearnings and 
strivings of the human soul, whatever the ave- 
nues may be or however they may be described 
or named. The testimony of the mystics has 
often been set at naught by the organised 
Church during the periods when there was a 
dearth of spiritual energy and illumination, 
and when it seemed as though the Church re- 
lied on temporalities which are seen and not 
on spiritualities which are not seen. And at 
such times the light of life was shining more 
clearly in the midst of the loyal souls who 
were discounted than of the Church which had 
discredited itself by spiritual emptiness. These 
bold initiates, who were ostracised, confessed 



66 The Faith and the Fellowship 

that they were in vital and direct communion 
with God and that this depended not on out- 
ward circumstances but on character. They 
did not believe in ^^a departmental Deity'' 
whose interests are circumscribed and whose 
supreme concern is in questions of ecclesiasti- 
cal millinery, as though rubrics and ritual were 
the vital issues. It is true that these mystics, in 
their endeavour to emphasise spiritual values, 
overlooked the intellectual aspects and were 
inclined to belittle everything that did not per- 
tain exclusively to the major theme. This has 
also been one of the weaknesses of the evan- 
gelical school. Those who were religious had 
no interest in art or music or literature or sci- 
ence which, according to them, are of the world 
worldly. This theory prevailed in spite of the 
facts that Bezalel was filled with the Spirit of 
God to devise cunning works in gold, silver, 
and brass for the ancient tabernacle, and that 
in both the Old and the New Testaments the 
glory of God is celebrated in the beauty and 
majesty of Nature. It is worth recalling that 
congregational singing came into use since 
Protestantism and that up to within recent 
times the presence of an organ in the church 
was regarded as a blasphemous intrusion. All 
this is significant of much. 

The larger views which now prevail on these 



The Christian's Inspiration 67 

and other subjects can surely be ascribed to 
the leadings of the Holy Spirit. We can also 
see the promise of Christ fulfilled as men de- 
voted to His interests have gone forth into the 
mission field to carry out His programme of 
world-wide redemption. The missionaries have 
been among the seers of the Church, and many 
of their conclusions, which were reached in the 
course of practical service, have already reacted 
on the Church at home. For instance, the 
movement for Christian unity and federation 
received its first impetus from the foreign field. 
Confronted by hoary superstitions and vener- 
able religions, the missionaries felt that the 
only way they could overtake the tremendous 
opposition and overcome the gigantic difficul- 
ties was by unifying their forces, not in the 
name of any Occidental denomination but in 
the name of the one and only Christ, whose 
Spirit was assuredly illuminating their under- 
standing, purifying their vision, enlarging 
their horizon, and compelling them to see the 
folly and futility of sectarianism. As the 
Church engages more enthusiastically in mis- 
sionary effort and does more to sustain its 
loyal representatives abroad, there will be a 
greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit which 
shall break down barriers, remove provincial- 
ism, expose sectarian delusions, and reduce to 



68 The Faith and the Fellowship 

the vanishing point all narrowness and bigotry. 
Thus only shall Christ become all and in all. 

Although modern civilisation has received a 
rude shock by the calamitous war, and many 
conclusions have thereby been nullified, we 
must nevertheless acknowledge that it is the 
divine-human figure of Jesus Christ which is 
occupying the horizon of the world. Whatever 
differences may separate Christian people, they 
are at one in confessing their allegiance to 
Christ. It is this truth of a Unifying Christ 
that we need to proclaim in order that East 
and West may meet in hearty and happy ac- 
cord and mutually emulate each other to offer 
Him grateful adoration in the most expressive 
language of goodness and love. The testimony 
of the centuries to the sufficiency of Christ is 
overwhelming, but it is only in these recent 
years that the voice of the Spirit has been 
heard urging the Church to realise that in 
Christ an irresistible argument is offered and a 
compelling appeal is made, not merely for 
tolerance but for appreciation of each other's 
differences, for amalgamation in fundamentals 
and for adaptation as to non-essentials. 

It has been demonstrated that Christ in the 
power of the Spirit continues the companion of 
the lonely hour, the comforter in the sad hour, 
the helper of the weak, the guide of the erring. 



The Christian s Inspiraticn 69 

the light of the weary, the Saviour divine of 
all who trust Him. The convincing test of a 
Christian is not his churchmanship but his 
Christianity. By this is meant his Christian 
experience in a life of surrender to Christ, of 
sympathy with Christ, of service for Christ, 
and of confidence in His ultimate triumph from 
shore to shore, even unto the uttermost parts of 
the earth. 

"Gather us in, Thou Love that fillest all! 
Gather our rival faiths within Thy fold! 
Rend each man's temple veil and bid it fall 
That we may know that Thou hast been of old ; 
Gather us in! 

"Gather us in! we worship only Thee; 

In varied names we stretch a common hand; 
In divers forms a common soul we see; 
In many ships we seek One Spirit land; 
Gather us in!'^ 



CHAPTER FIVE: THE APPEAL OF 
DISCIPLESHIP 



''Why then art thou afraid to take up thy cross, which leads 
to a kingdom? 

In the cross is salvation; in the cross is life; in the cross is 
the protection from thy enemies. 

The cross is an infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the cross 
is strength of mind; in the cross is joy of spirit. 

In the cross is the height of virtue; in the cross is the per- 
fection of sanctity. 

There is no health of the soul, nor hope of eternal life, but 
in the cross. 

Take up thy cross then and follow Jesus, and thou shalt go 
into life everlasting. 

He is gone before thee, carrying His cross, and He died for 
thee upon the cross, that thou mayest also bear thy cross, and 
love to die on the cross. 

Because if thou be dead with Christ, thou shalt also live with 
Him; and if thou hast been His partner in the suffering, so 
shalt thou also be in the glory. ' ' 

— Thomas a Ke^npis: *'0f the Imitation of Christ.'* 
Booh II,, chap. 12. 2. 



CHAPTEE FIVE 

THE APPEAL. OF DISCIPLESHIP 

JESUS was more anxious to have a choice 
following than a large following of dis- 
ciples. He was never impressed by the 
argument of numbers. He rather insisted that 
those who identified themselves with Him 
should he in hearty sympathy with His pro- 
granune, for that would imply that they were 
willing to pay the full price of discipleship. A 
scribe was once stirred into enthusiasm and 
quickly offered himself ; but Jesus knew that he 
had not counted the cost and so He turned down 
this impulsive soul and urged him to recon- 
sider whether he would be willing to follow 
One who had not where to lay His head (Matt. 
8. 20). Another offered his services but he 
was not as whole-souled; he only declared his 
intentions, but Jesus told him not to delude 
himself with good purposes but promptly to 
translate them into action, for, ^^No man having 
put his hand to the plough and looking back is 
fit for the kingdom of God'' (Luke 9. 62). Jesus 
met yet another who was full of promise and 

75 



74 The Faith and the Fellowship 

He urged him to enter the ranks right away; 
but he excused himself because he had not fully 
made up his mind. How like many a person 
to-day who vacillates and prevaricates and 
never makes a final decision. Start out at once 
^^in scorn of consequence/' and let the future 
open up of its own accord (Matt. 8. 22). The 
impulsive, the hesitant, the double-minded are 
of no use and Jesus did not look for recruits 
from them. 

It may seem as though the Master was too 
exacting and that He was expecting too much 
at the very outset. Would it not have been 
better to lead them by slow stages so that they 
might get used to the new demands before sur- 
rendering to them? Such a policy would have 
led to His claims being misunderstood, and 
many might have been tempted to compromise 
and go half-way in their allegiance. Indeed 
this turned out to be the case in spite of the 
high standards that were held up. The results 
were disappointing as with those who fell away 
in Galilee because they could not accept the 
hard sayings, as they called them. Jesus well 
knew the lurking evil in the human heart. He 
saw that wickedness was powerful and that it 
had established itself everywhere. Proofs of 
the demonic display of sin were found on all 
hands. The only way to overcome and destroy 



The Appeal of Discipleship 75 

this hydra-headed enemy of man is to put up 
a stiff and open fight and show no quarter 
whatever. The heroic temper is needed for the 
valiant effort which will produce the virtuous 
deed and make for the conquering life. It is 
not by following the line of least resistance 
nor by taking counsel with ease that any vic- 
tory has ever been won on the battlefield of 
the soul. The very fact that Jesus made the 
appeal to the instincts of courage latent in the 
human breast shows that He knew what man is 
capable of when the right sort of pressure is 
exercised. 

The great end of life is to develop person- 
ality. The commercial tests of success are not 
only superficial but are also morally poison- 
ous. Many young people have the idea that 
the god of getting-on is the only god to whom 
worship can be profitably offered. This is a 
species of short-sightedness which urges that 
the course of education should be retrenched 
and that the pupils should be taken through an 
abbreviated curriculum, with the sole purpose 
of helping them to make a living. Many people 
seem to forget that mental discipline has a 
bearing on moral discipline and that time is 
not lost but rather gained when more time is 
spent in school. It has thus often enabled the 
student to find himself and be better equipped 



76 The Faith and the Fellowship 

to do a full and satisfactory share of the tasks 
of life. This is nothing but the spirit of allegi-^ 
ance to the best. The. real culture of the soul 
also implies restraint, without which the prin- 
ciple of self-development may work self-de- 
struction so far as the noblest qualities are 
concerned. We get only as we give ; we prosper 
only as we surrender ; we conquer according as 
we suffer; we truly win only as we follow the 
rules of the game. 

The spirit of submission to the highest ideal 
with all that is included of sacrifice is repeat- 
edly inculcated by Jesus. There is absolutely 
no other way of becoming a Christian disciple 
and attaining to perfection. A better word 
than sacrifice would be consecration because it 
has an affirmative note. The follower of Jesus 
is not expected merely to exhibit passive vir- 
tues as though he were a negative character. 
There are also positive traits which make for 
stalwart manhood and earnest womanhood 
which are even more distinctive of Christian- 
ity. It is a call of devotion to the ideal of 
duty as exemplified and sanctified by Jesus 
Christ. And the response to this upward pull 
imparts the thrill of inspiration and the joy 
of satisfaction, beside which all lesser good is 
of small value. 

Duty is that which is due from us and which 



The Appeal of Discipleship 77 

we must perform. It brings before us not only 
obligation and responsibility but also privilege 
and benefit. None of the warring peoples of 
Europe are thinking of sacrifice where the 
interests of their respective countries are con- 
cerned. Young girls with the charm and pur- 
ity of youth have been shot down as spies. 
Women have gladly given their sons to fight for 
home and country, even though it meant death. 
Men have gone to the front and thousands are 
in training for the summons which will take 
them to the danger and death zones, but there 
has been no hesitation in their consecration on 
the altars of patriotism. One result is that 
throughout the countries of Europe a feeling 
of solemnity prevails as they realise how seri- 
ous are the issues of this fearful conflict. A 
further consequence is that some of the finest 
elements of character which have lain sub- 
merged beneath material interests have been 
roused and have come to the surface. Every- 
where it is being increasingly recognised that 
the real worth of life does not consist in out- 
ward possessions but in those eternal enrich- 
ments of the soul which neither moth nor rust 
can consume and where thieves cannot break 
through and steal. 

The summons of Jesus, be it further noted, 
is never to self -mutilation but always to self- 



yS The Faith and the Fellowship 

enlargement and self -ennoblement. Eecall the 
names of some of his faithful followers and 
you will see that because they stood firmly and 
unflinchingly upon the rock of Christian duty 
they had a cheerful spirit and a hopeful out- 
look, and were confident of the ultimate tri- 
umphs of the Kingdom of God and the grow- 
ing influence of the Church. They did not 
shirk their work nor did they offer the hire- 
ling's plea but they kept their hand on the 
plough with unswerving determination and 
they gloriously achieved. They did not delude 
themselves by thinking that appearances were 
deceptive and that the trials and difficulties 
were not half as serious as they threatened to 
be. They were in earnest because they were 
honest and they did not draw back for a single 
moment; but with steadfast eye they reached 
forth unto the prize of their high calling and 
became worthy of Him who had brought them 
out of darkness into his marvellous light. The 
New Testament has been well called the most 
joyous book in all literature; and yet it was 
written by men who knew the bitterness of 
privation and persecution for the sake of the 
name. They, however, took joyfully the spoil- 
ing of their possessions, knowing that they as- 
suredly had a better possession and an abiding 
one. 



The Appeal of Discipleship 79 

These eager spirits of a former day re- 
sponded so readily because they had made 
Christ central in their lives. If they were 
called on to renounce much it was in order that 
they may receive yet more of what was vitally 
indispensable. The programme that was spread 
before Paul suggested anything but ease: ^^I 
will show him how many things he must suffer 
for my name's sake'' (Acts 9. 16). He was 
not affrighted by the dangers but accepted his 
task in the spirit of Christian heroism and 
continued through stripes and prisons and 
stonings and shipwrecks and perils abundant 
for the sake of Christ and the Church. This 
has been equally true of all who have wit- 
nessed a good confession in strong martyr 
fashion. Think of Wycliffe, the pioneer of 
Protestantism, of John Hus, of Jerome of 
Prague, of Dante well described as ^'the Medi- 
aeval Synthesis," of Savonarola, of John Knox 
the indomitable, of Martin Luther the fearless, 
of Calvin and Wesley and Carey and Asbury 
and Coke and Livingstone, and ever so many 
burning lights which shone with the splendour 
of heaven, in conspicuous and obscure places 
and who dispelled the midnight darkness of 
earth. Eepresentatives of this magnificent 
spirit have been found in every age. Among 
them are the missionaries who have gone forth 



8o The Faith and the Fellowship 

to evangelise the world. It is not surprising 
that the temples of paganism have shaken to 
their foundations, that vices and sins which 
were cursing human lives loosened their deadly 
grip, and that souls who were in despair were 
ransomed from spiritual peril. It may be in- 
teresting to bring together some testimonies 
which give memorable expression to this spirit 
of courageous consecration. David Brainerd 
said: ^^I cared not where or how I lived, or 
what hardships I went through, so that I could 
but gain souls for Christ.'' John Mason Peck, 
one of the early "Western pioneers, declared, 
*^I have now put my hands to the plough! 
Lord, may I never turn back. I feel a most 
heavenly joy when my heart is engaged in this 
work.'' 

Thank God, the fires of martyr sacrifice and 
service are still burning upon the altars of the 
Church. It was only in June, 1911, that an 
extraordinary demonstration took place in 
Philadelphia at the Baptist World Alliance. 
The Eussian delegates wore the badges of scars 
on their persons on account of their faith. 
Simon Stepanoff twice narrowly escaped death : 
during the first year of his conversion, he had 
frequently been imprisoned and had spent five 
years in Siberia; he had also baptised one 
thousand Cossacks in Astrakhan. Andreas 



The Appeal of Discipleship 8 1 

Estratenko was two years in prison, had often 
been beaten and fined for preaching, and in 
Siberia had baptised two thousand persons, 
many of whom had travelled over one hundred 
and eighty miles for this purpose. Versilia 
Ivanoff had been twice exiled and kept in 
thirty-one different prisons. Feodor Kostro- 
min had spent sixteen years in exile and nine 
years in prison, and during his imprisonment 
fifty criminals were converted. What a record 
just from one country. The remarkable thing 
is that in every land there have been men and 
women who could not be bought to betray their 
Lord and Master and who preferred death 
rather than denial. As long as this continues 
to be the case the Church of the living God 
will be invincible and the gates of hell will 
never prevail against it. 

It is true that there is a certain austerity 
in Christianity. It has not been popular but it 
is spiritually healthy. Those who look for a 
comfortable religion that makes holiness easy 
and spirituality entertaining cannot find it in 
the gospel of Christ. Everywhere and every 
time He challenges His followers in a way that 
drives out all sluggish and sinister motives 
from their hearts. ' ' If any man will come after 
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
and follow me." These words were spoken 



82 The Faith and the Fellowship 

when Peter tried to interfere with the settled 
purpose of the Master. The thought of intense 
suffering as the condition of fruitful fidelity 
was repulsive to the nature of this impulsive 
disciple, but he was directly checked, for such 
a view of life was foreign to the view of Jesus. 
Self-denial means the curbing and the cutting 
out of the passions and the appetites, and de- 
throning ^^the tyrannous dominion of self." 
We thus confess that Christ has the right of 
way. This is a purely voluntary act but it 
must be done if we would have Christlikeness 
of character. We take up the cross when we 
perform duties which may be disagreeable but 
which are, nevertheless, necessary. One cannot 
help feeling that the Puritan, with all of his 
so-called narrowness, was nearer the truth of 
things than his captious critic, the lax Church- 
man, who was liberal but also frivolous. It was 
the seriousness of Jesus that offended His ene- 
mies. He did not have a morbid and melan- 
choly temperament and there was absolutely 
nothing of the monastic in Him. St. Simeon 
Stylites of the pillar fame and St. Anthony of 
the desert and others like them, both men and 
women, were governed by false and distorted 
ideals of life. Monasticism, pagan no less 
than Christian, has failed because of its ab- 
normal, anti-social and anti-human outlook. 



The Appeal of Discipleship 83 

Jesus had none of this. His accurate sense of 
the values of life led Him to conclude that 
moral and spiritual worth cannot be obtained 
except as we count the cost and pay the price. 
We cannot explain away the severe features 
of Christianity and retain that which has al- 
ways been distinctive of it. It is easy enough 
to have the cross on the steeple of the church, 
but it is a far more beautiful thing, when the 
cross is seen in the heart of the church mem- 
ber, giving motive and momentum to his entire 
life. And until it is seen more frequently and 
more largely we shall never make much head- 
way against the forces of darkness, which 
threaten to destroy our spiritual vitality. "Why 
is it that a leading teacher of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church like Pere Gratry, who cannot be 
accused of prejudice, should have so sorry an 
opinion of Protestantism, as the following will 
indicate: *' Protestantism is in essence the 
abolition of sacrifice. To abolish mortification, 
abstinence, and fasting ; to abolish the necessity 
of good works, effort, struggle, virtue ; to shut 
up sacrifice in Jesus alone and not let it pass 
to us ; no more to say as St. Paul did, I fill up 
that which is wanting in the sufferings of 
Christ, but rather to say to Jesus on the Cross, 
^Suffer alone, Lord'; there is Protestant- 



84 The Faith and the Fellowship 

ism. ' ' * At the first blush we may be ready to 
resent this charge as though it were a libelous 
exaggeration. But there is an element of truth 
underlying this criticism, whatever may be the 
differences in our relative conceptions of sac- 
rifice. Are there not many who sing the first 
line of the hymn: ^^ Jesus paid it alP'; but who 
have not caught the practical sense of the next 
line: ^^AU to him I owe"? Some one has well 
said that we must guard against the peril of 
Church membership without obligation. There 
is a constant danger whenever the Christian 
ideal fails to control the vision and the will of 
the disciple of Jesus. 

The central feature of this ideal has to do 
with the cross and whoever tries to get rid of 
it will have an emasculated and perverted form 
of Christianity which cannot capture the ideal- 
ism of youth nor give tone to the dreams of old 
age. There is far too much of cant and clap- 
trap about attracting young people by offer- 
ing them a religious experience which effer- 
vesces and which cannot endure in the presence 
of hard tests and exacting claims. Let us be 
careful that we do not turn out religious milk- 
sops who know nothing of moral enthusiasm, 
of holy passion, of virile courage, of sublime 

* I am indebted to an article by Principal Denney in The 
British Weekly for this quotation. 



The Appeal of Discipleship 85 

steadfastness which have always been the 
marks of a militant and puissant Christianity. 
The gist of the whole matter, so far as real 
Christian living is concerned, consists of love 
for Jesus Christ and loyalty to Him. If this 
spirit were carried into all our vocations and 
avocations of life, it would help solve the indus- 
trial and social problems, and give a new 
motive to national and international relation- 
ships, and make more persuasive the principle 
of brotherhood. Then shall begin the new era 
of concern for each other's welfare, considera- 
tion for each other's rights, and co-operation 
with each other in establishing the kingdom of 
our God and of His Christ. 

"Lead on, King Eternal, 

Till sin's fierce war shall cease, 
And holiness shall whisper 

The sweet Amen of peace; 
For not with swords loud clashing 

Nor roll of stirring drums; 
With deeds of love and mercy, 

The heavenly Kingdom comes.'^ 



CHAPTER SIX: THE PRACTICE OF 
BROTHERHOOD 



''Love has received various definitions in the speech of men, 
corresponding to their various experiences with it. Sometimes 
it has been a sentiment of the mind, and sometimes a selfish 
human desiring; sometimes an ardent approval, or a hunger for 
possession, or a fellowship of the heart; sometimes a passion 
of delight. But he who has set love in the highest place has 
defined it at the highest, showing us that at heart it is a pas- 
sion for doing good, a self -forgetful impulse of redemption, in 
imitation of God and fellowship with him. This, which is the 
passion of God, is appointed to be the passion of his children. 
This is his ideal of human character. When this ideal is real- 
ised, the finest ethical grace becomes the very life-breath of 
religion, while divine religion is the breath of the finest ethical 
life in man." 

— William Newton Clarice: "The Ideal of JesvrS," page 
138. 



CHAPTEE SIX 

THE PEACTICE OF BROTHEEHOOD 

THE Hymn of Heavenly Love in First 
Corinthians, chapter thirteen, is the fin- 
est interpretation of Christianity ex- 
pressed in terms of practical life. With it may 
be compared the words of Isaiah which Jesus 
read in the synagogue of Nazareth when he 
announced that the new era of Messianic bless- 
edness had at last dawned. Then turn to the 
tender message of Jesus to the despondent 
Baptist in the dungeon of Machaerus. These 
three utterances express the unique genius of 
Christianity. Its crowning virtue is that of 
love which easily surpasses and supersedes the 
glory of scholarship, the greatness of wealth, 
the splendour of position, the magnificence of 
worldly pomp, and whatever else may be re- 
garded as among the desirable prizes of life. 

It is not surprising that Jesus was rejected 
at Nazareth and later by the nation. It only 
proves conclusively the alarming extent of their 
spiritual dulness. We need not, however, pass 
wholesale judgment on them because, as a mat- 

89 



90 The Faith and the Fellowship 

ter of fact, no nation has acknowledged the 
supremacy of Jesus in the administration of its 
own affairs or in its dealings with other na- 
tions. None of the warring peoples of Europe 
have clean hands. Bead the history of Euro- 
pean diplomacy, as shown for instance in ' ' The 
Memoirs of Francesco Crispi,'^ the Italian 
statesman, and it can be seen that international 
policies have been regulated by the pagan eth- 
ics of refined selfishness and oftentimes by 
principles which even paganism would disown 
and discredit. In the light of these circum- 
stances it is not to be wondered at that modern 
civilisation should so tragically have ^^ rattled 
back to barbarism,'^ to use the pungent words 
of Lord Eosebery. Those who have hastily 
concluded that the demonic displays of brutal- 
ity since August, 1914, demonstrate the abso- 
lute inefiiciency of Christianity must think 
again and take back their gratuitous criticism. 
The message of Jesus Christ is primarily to 
the individual. It is not to him exclusively but 
in his relations with others. The individualism 
of Christianity has thus always inspired the 
spirit of fraternalism with intent to share its 
benefits with all humanity. It is through the 
individual and the co-operation of like-minded 
and like-spirited individuals that the leaven of 
Christian truth and influence has spread from 



The Practice of Brotherhood 91 

land to land, even to the uttermost parts of 
the earth. This is yet taking place. Think of 
John G. Paton going to the New Hebrides. 
After years of labour without any tangible re- 
sults he finally won his first convert. The en- 
thusiasm of this native Christian led him to 
exercise an influence on his neighbours and so 
the converts increased. In the spiritual world 
the increase is not by addition but by multi- 
plication. The new man in Christ develops a 
new manhood and as he grows in character 
others follow in his steps and in time the wil- 
derness of paganism is changed into a garden 
of fair and fragrant roses. This blessed re- 
sult is obtained by the intensive testimony and 
the extensive influence of the thoroughly con- 
secrated person. 

The Christian is the ^^ light of the world,'' 
shedding forth the enlightening knowledge con- 
cerning God, man and duty. He is the ^^salt of 
the earth,'' and by the purity of his presence 
he introduces elements that make for truth 
and righteousness. He is the leaven and his 
influence permeates throughout all the strata of 
society. All these figures of speech have ref- 
erence to social relations. It is thus very evi- 
dent that the Christian does not live unto him- 
self but for others. His supreme concern is not 
to flee from the world and speedily enter heaven. 



92 The Faith and the Fellowship 

That is of the essence of selfishness and there 
is nothing in the New Testament which lends 
support to such an abnormal and unhealthy 
view of life. Buddhism encourages renunciation 
from society but Christianity insists on the re- 
generation of society. The ideal Christian is 
not of the world as to its ungodly motives and 
methods, but he is in the world and remains 
therein to testify to the ennobling way of life. 
It was that branch of the Evangelical school 
which made so much of other-worldiness which 
also stamped out slavery from the British Em- 
pire and laboured for the improvement of pris- 
ons and the opening of hospitals and engaged 
in other philanthropic activities. The Clapham 
Sect may be called reactionaries in theology 
but in this body of Christians were such noble 
men of God like" Clarkson, Wilberforce and 
Shaftesbury, whose services brought honour to 
the name of Christ and blessings to the needy 
world. They were idealists in that they drew 
their inspiration from heaven but they were 
free from sentimentalism because they recog- 
nised the evils and worked incessantly to cor- 
rect the wrongs that infested society. 

There is then nothing anaemic in the spirit of 
the Christian nor is he introspective and mor- 
bid, nor even sentimental and erratic. He is 
the only one who is sane in the midst of the 



The Practice of Brotherhood 93 

multitudes who are rushing along with head- 
long recklessness and pitiable short-sighted- 
ness, having no thought of the unseen realities 
which are both satisfying and eternal. His 
first business is to grow a character in harmony 
with the gracious ideal in Christ; but he finds 
that this cannot be satisfactorily performed 
unless he considers the social nexus which binds 
him to his fellows. Indeed the exercise of al- 
truistic impulses reflects on his own life to the 
extent that his character develops in propor- 
tion as he helps to improve the conditions 
which shall make truth, righteousness and 
goodness more practicable in the world. It 
cannot be otherwise if the Christian realises 
his stewardship in the name of his Master who 
said of Himself: ^^The Son of man came not 
to be ministered unto but to minister and to 
give his life a ransom for many.'^ 

One of the first messages of Jesus was the 
announcement that the Kingdom of God is at 
hand. The reference is to the reign of God 
over the lives of individuals who are devoted 
to the moral and spiritual ideals made known 
by Jesus Christ. They are known by their 
sane and fraternal attitude to life. Their influ- 
ence is always exerted on behalf of co-operation 
as against competition ; their purpose is to fur- 
ther the all-round welfare of mankind; and 



94 The Faith and the Fellowship 

their conviction is that most assuredly the 
leaven of grace and love will continue working 
until the whole earth shall be filled with purity 
and peace. Those who adopt this progrannne 
are found in every land, and they fraternise 
with each other despite the differences of na- 
tionality, tradition and custom. They breathe a 
spiritual atmosphere which gives breadth and 
largeness of vision. For it is like the mountain 
air which far exceeds in health and exuberance 
that of the marshy plain. The members of the 
Kingdom of God constantly offer the prayer, 
'^Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven^'; 
and they are ever impelled by the spirit of love 
to God and love to men. In the words of Prin- 
cipal A. M. Fairbairn: ^^Love to one's neigh- 
bour is but active and applied love to God.'' 
This is thus none other than a divine-human 
society, a united Brotherhood, which is in- 
clusive of a sisterhood, for both men and wom- 
en subscribe to the covenant which commits 
them to labour for the establishment of right- 
eousness and peace and joy in a spirit of holi- 
ness. It further implies a recognition that 
every person — man, woman and child — has a 
right to live a full life, unhampered by the re- 
strictions imposed by vested privilege ; and that 
every one is also entitled to the service of every 
other one in a mutual compact, as far as in each 



The Practice of Brotherhood 95 

one lies, to lessen the burdens, to mitigate the 
trials, to ease the strain, to remove the tempta- 
tions, and so make life better worth living. 

It has therefore come to pass that wherever 
the Gospel of Jesus has been taken, it has 
proved itself to be the most effective instru- 
ment in illuminating the understanding, in 
purifying the heart, and in elevating the stand- 
ards of those who accept its pervasive and pro- 
gressive ideals. This is because the Gospel is a 
living dynamic. It is the influence of a person 
and not of a programme which has imparted 
new motives and kindled love and stirred enthu- 
siastic desires, so that devoted men and women 
have gone forth and produced revolutionary 
changes in the world. The supreme example of 
Christ has been a constant inspiration. His 
message of the universal Fatherhood of God 
and its complementary message of the univer- 
sal Brotherhood of man have given the death 
blow to the theory and practice of social privi- 
lege, class superiority and caste tyranny. Well 
may Lord Morley have said in his ^^Life of 
Gladstone,'^ that in the teaching of Jesus, 
*^many secret elements of social volcano 
slumber. ' ' 

It is not possible to understand the progress 
of these nineteen centuries without seriously 
reckoning with Christianity as a redemptive 



g6 The Faith and the Fellowship 

fact of far-reaching importance in the life of 
all the peoples of the world. Great and urgent 
reforms have been executed under the inspira- 
tion of the Spirit of Christ. Turn over the 
pages of ^^ Christian Missions and Social Prog- 
ress," by the Eev. James S. Dennis, and you 
will find in these three large octavo volumes a 
mass of information which demonstrates from 
actual facts that the Gospel of Christ has ful- 
filled a universal mission which is merciful in 
spirit, optimistic in outlook, cosmopolitan in 
purpose, splendid in achievement, and opu- 
lently prophetic of yet more beneficent deeds 
in the future. We are learning that it is not 
enough to war against the evil and bring relief 
to those who are in distress. It is far better 
so to constitute the social order that surgical 
methods of reform will become superfluous. 
Discontinue the exploitation of human life for 
commercial gain ; make more of the spiritual 
than of the merely economic values of life; 
realise our responsibility to the extent that we 
feel guilty in common with the transgressor 
who might have been different if he had a bet- 
ter environment; recognise the fact of frater- 
nity and that we all are custodians of the inter- 
ests of our brothers and sisters in the name 
of Christ; lose no opportunity to help every 
agency that is working for healthier childhood, 



The Practice of Brotherhood 97 

cleaner youth, finer womanhood, and stronger 
manhood. The results will then be beneficial to 
all classes of society so as to make also for 
national welfare and for the establishment of 
a federation of nations, when war and its in- 
fernal progeny shall be no more. 

We are indeed aware that the dangers which 
beset our modern life are serious. Think of 
drunkenness, gambling, lust, crime, unsanitary 
and unmoral conditions in the tenements, the 
physical, ethical and religious impairments 
caused by child-labour and the employment of 
women under sweat-shop conditions. Add to 
all this the tyrannies of trusts as well as of 
labour unions, the political corruptions, the 
temptations to which girls are exposed in 
offices and stores, the ravages of white slavery 
and of the white plague, and we may well be- 
come discouraged as we contemplate the appall- 
ing situation. But let us remember that equally 
stern difficulties were mastered and overcome 
in the name of Christ by His faithful servants 
of a former day. Let us furthermore remem- 
ber that we are not called upon to right the 
wrongs of the universe but to attend to the 
duties nearest home and to be faithful to our 
own opportunities. 

One of the pressing requirements made of 
every Christian is that he should know what 



98 The Faith and the Fellowship 

hie is talking about. It has often happened that 
many social agitations have suffered from sen- 
timental exaggerations which have failed accu- 
rately to diagnose the causes of the evil and 
have consequently suggested remedial meas- 
ures which are absolutely futile. We cannot 
depend on any ready-made panaceas. What 
may suit one age is wholly unsuitable to a later 
age, and what may have been effective in one 
community or people is altogether out of place 
in another. ^^New times demand new measures 
and new men ; ' ' and underlying this is the im- 
perative summons for an adequate vision of 
the new needs. The industrial, political and 
national situation of our day is of a different 
complexion to that of the last century, yea, of 
the last few years. Dean George Hodges strik- 
ingly remarked that, ^^The characteristic sym- 
bol of this generation is the question-mark. 
Our patron saint is the sphinx. '' We cannot 
then face conditions by burying our head in 
the sands like the ostrich, but should be fear- 
less and open-eyed like the eagle as it soars 
upwards in its majestic flight. Christianity is 
equal to every emergency and the spirit of 
Christ offers present illumination to His follow- 
ers, in order that they may give an interpre- 
tation of life which is broad and deep and 
therefore adequate, offering solutions which 



The Practice of Brotherhood 99 

look towards a reconstruction of individual and 
social life on a basis of love and justice. 

We look again to the mission field for an 
illustration because there we can see what rad- 
ical changes have been effected by the Gospel 
of redemption. In 1894 a sailing vessel was 
drifting landwards in a dangerous sea off the 
east coast of Formosa. The native pastor of 
the village hastily beat a drum and summoned 
the villagers who were organised into a rescue 
party. Some of them were sent to inform the 
crew that there were no savages on the island 
and that if they land the chapel would be placed 
at their disposal. That evening twenty-one 
Europeans and Americans met one hundred 
and forty-six converts for a service of thanks- 
giving in the mission chapel. This native pas- 
tor was the first convert of Dr. MacKay, who 
wrote concerning this incident, ^ ' Note well that 
twenty-five years ago that crew would have 
been murdered, the vessel plundered, and no 
one left to tell the tale. ' ^ * Christianity stands 
everywhere and at all times for the mending 
and making of men and women. It is not only 
the poorest and most ignorant whom the Gos- 
pel has benefited. It has been a gracious bene- 
diction also to those of high social standing and 

*From '^Christian Missions and Social Progress" by Rev. 
James S. Dennis, D.D., Volume I, 412 f. 



lOO The Faith and the Fellowship 

with much culture. Not only the pariah but the 
Brahmin in India, not only the cooly but the 
viceroy in China, not only the peasant but the 
prince in Japan, not only the camp-followers 
but the chiefs of tribes in Africa — all these at 
the extremes of society and others in between 
have been helped by Jesus Christ, the Elder 
Brother of us all. 

These miracles of grace have not been con- 
fined to pagan lands. In Christendom the 
changes have been both evolutionary and revo- 
lutionary. At times they have happened so 
quietly that those who were living in the midst 
of them failed to recognise their far-reaching 
efficacy and often regarded them as a mere mat- 
ter of course. There was a time not so long ago 
when it was considered an outrage to discuss 
social conditions in the pulpit; but now a fail- 
ure to do so would be taken as a proof that 
the preacher is remiss in his duty as a prophet 
of the God of righteousness and truth. The 
conscience of the Church is fast awakening td 
everything that pertains to human welfare and 
we are boldly applying Christianity to every 
part of life. This is a healthy move in the 
direction that will speedily make possible the 
wider diffusion of the principles of the Gospel 
of the Kingdom. We are also intelligently 
learning to accept Charles Kingsley's *^ belief 



The Practice of Brotherhood loi 

that not self-interest but self-sacrifice is the 
only law upon which human society can be 
grounded with any hope of prosperity and per- 
manence. ' ' And nothing has demonstrated this 
truth more emphatically like the recent harrow- 
ing events in Europe. Well may we thank God 
and take courage for the morrow, which shall 
certainly be brighter than any yesterday, 

^^He is breaking down the barriers, he is easting up the 

way, 
He is calling for his angels to build up the gates of day; 
But his angels here are human, not the shining hosts 

above, 
For the drum beats of his army are the heart beats of 

our love/' 



CHAPTER SEVEN: THE CONCLU- 
SIVE WORD 



^^As absolute religion for the individual, Christianity minis- 
ters to all his needs and furnishes the sufficient principle for 
all the activities of his life. As absolute religion for humanity 
it shall be established when it ministers to all needs and is 
adopted as the guiding principle in all lives. The direct and 
fundamental proofs of the Christian religion are found already 
in those who, resting upon the Divine love revealed in Christ, 
find blessedness and peace; and embodying the same love in 
their lives, serve their brethren. The true Church is the 
brotherhood of those who are united in this fellowship of service 
and love. The final proof will be given when all men in all 
places and all times acknowledge holy love as supreme, and 
manifest it in the completed kingdom of God. Then shall the 
absolute religion be fully known, for God will be all and in all. 
Until then we work in faith, for the proof of the Christian 
religion is not a deduction of logic, but an achievement of 
redeeming love.'' 

— George William Knox : ' ' The Direct and Fundamental 
Proofs of the Christian Beligion/' page 195, 



CHAPTEE SEVEN 

THE CONCLUSIVE WOKD 

WE must emphasise clearly and repeat- 
edly that Christianity is the religion 
of a Person and not of a book or of 
dogma. Professor Eendel Harris made this 
thought clear when he declared how absurd it 
would be, in place of the familiar lines of the 
hymn, to sing instead: 

"How sweet the name of Logos sounds 
In a believer^s ear!" 

When we speak of the authority of Christianity 
we are thinking of the influence which it has 
exerted throughout the world. The test is not 
one of statistics but of dynamics. It is not an 
external force but an inner constraining appeal 
to the emotions, the intellect, and the will based 
on arguments of solid and indisputable facts. 
It is the authority of the thrilling message of 
redemption which offers forgiveness and prom- 
ises life everlasting. We thus speak of the 
Christian redemption for there is only one and 
none other, even that which is given us by the 

105 



io6 The Faith and the Fellowship 

Christ of Calvary who liveth for evermore. 
This is a vital experience which does not de- 
pend on dogmatic creeds nor on ecclesiastical 
pronouncements but on the testimony within. 
Christianity is the religion of a life which is 
inspired by Christ and his moral and spiritual 
ideals. Its essence has been well expressed by 
Paul in a sentence where the voice of experi- 
ence is distinctly heard: ''1 have been crucified 
with Christ ; and it is no longer I that live, but 
Christ liveth in me : and that life which I now 
live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which 
is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave 
himself up for me.^' 

Many things are desirable but few things are 
necessary and these are the essential necessi- 
ties like food, air, water, and clothing. So also 
is it in religion. A beautiful Church building, a 
finely equipped choir, and financial endowments 
are satisfying ; but in the last analysis they are 
among the non-essentials. Christianity has 
flourished without them, and if need be it can do 
so again, providing that the central essentials 
are present, which come from lives which are 
hid with Christ in God. Harnack says, in his 
^'The Mission and Expansion of Christianity,'' 
that one of the distinctive features of the 
Primitive Church was the emphasis which it 
laid on life as opposed to theory. The test was 



The Conclusive Word lOJ 

not creedal but personal. The question was not 
how and how much one believed, but how and 
how far one lived and acted in the light and 
under the stimulus of the constraining love of 
Jesus Christ. With this thought in our mind 
let us note some of the elements of Christianity 
which have given it such a conspicuous place 
among the agencies making for the uplift of 
the race. 

Consider its reasonableness. Christianity is 
not against reason although at certain points it 
is ahove reason. We are led to God by our in- 
tuitions, and these conclusions are later en- 
dorsed by reason. So we can say with Charles 
Kingsley that ^^ faith is reason exercised on the 
invisible, '^ and with John Watson who referred 
to faith as the sixth sense, and made a worthy 
discrimination when he wrote: ^^It is the part 
of reason to verify intellectual conceptions and 
apply intellectual principles. ... It is the 
part of faith to gather those hopes and feelings 
which lie outside the intellect.'^ While the ap- 
peal is always made to the highest intelligence 
there is in man something deeper than ^^the 
freezing reason's colder part.'' Speaking of 
knowledge Tennyson said: 

"What is she cut from love and faith, 
But some wild Pallas from the brain 



io8 The Faith and the Fellowship 

Of demons? fiery-hot to burst 
All barriers in her onward race 
For power. Let her know her place; 

She is the second, not the first." 

The ethical precepts and spiritual summons of 
Christianity have always commended them- 
selves to the ripest judgment of the race. 
There have been interpretations of Christian 
truth which reflect pagan asceticism and world- 
ly wisdom, but they are manifestly out of ac- 
cord with the humane teachings of the New Tes- 
tament. It is, moreover, our Protestant privi- 
lege to exercise the right of personal judg- 
ment and reject whatever is inconsistent with 
the spirit of Christ. In previous chapters we 
have considered some of the ideals, motives 
and inspirations of the Gospel. Among them 
are the revelation of perfection and love, the 
glory of Christ's grace of character, the deed 
of redemption by the Cross, the inspiration of 
the Divine presence for Christian living, the 
summons to earnest discipleship, and the prac- 
tice of the wholesome virtue of brotherliness. 
These are surely sufficient for all purposes of 
daily living so that what things are hard to be 
understood had better be let alone for the slow 
unfolding of experience, instead of trying to 
burst a blood vessel in a premature grapple 
with them. 



The Conclusive Word 109 

We cannot but be struck by the unique adap- 
tability of Christianity which has enabled it to 
become acclimated in every land. It cannot be 
regarded by any as a foreign religion because 
once it is accepted by people, they find that it 
uniquely agrees with their needs. There are 
different types of Christian character which re- 
flect the temperament and traditions of differ- 
ent nations. The purpose of Christianity is 
not to propagate Occidental ways of thought 
among Orientals nor vice versa. Its great aim 
is to permeate the life of the individual and of 
society with the Christian spirit in such ways 
that those who accept Christ will be led to im- 
prove also the conditions in which they live. 
Beneath the external dissimilarities there is, 
however, a profound unity in Christ. We can 
thus look forward to a great enrichment of the 
understanding of the many-sided character of 
our Lord, as contributions are made thereto by 
Christianised Hindu mysticism, Chinese ethic, 
Mohammedan devotion, and other forms of 
ethnic religion. 

In this connection mention should be made 
of the universality of the Gospel. It has been 
at home in every land and century, with never 
a note of provincialism or prejudice. Human 
experience is never uniform and that is because 



no The Faith and the Fellowship 

of the marvel of personality. The same is true 
of the varieties of religious experience, and 
Christianity alone of all the religions of the 
world has recognised this fact and provided 
for their needs. It thus satisfies the mind, 
stimulates the emotions, stirs the will, and 
strengthens to action. The test is not only in- 
tellectual, for that would make it exclusive and 
restricted and at times even theoretical; it is 
not wholly emotional, for this is more or less of 
a subjective test and the very fact that there 
are differences of temperament shows that it 
would not be safe to set up any single standard 
of emotionality. A mare convincing test is the 
ethical which furnishes verifiable arguments 
that convince one in the open arena and which 
can be understood regardless of the separations 
caused by language, custom, and tradition. 
^^By their fruits they shall be known,'' and here- 
in Jesus spoke to the deepest desires of life. 

The ethnic faiths have dismally failed. None 
of them are attractive or influential outside 
their native habitats, except where they have 
been given eclectic misinterpretations by re- 
ligious dilettantes who understand neither the 
genius nor the spirit of those religions which 
they curiously espouse or rather patronise. 
Theosophy, for instance, is a jumble of Bud- 
dhism and Hinduism, welded together by the 



The Conclusive Word ill 

pessimism of Schopenhauer ; but those who ad- 
vocate this sinister cult in Western lands de- 
rived their information at second-hand. As a 
matter of fact the influence of the great Ori- 
ental teachers is declining in their own lands 
and their power is being superseded by Jesus 
Christ. Where it is kept alive and halfway 
vigorous, it is due to the efforts of misguided 
individuals from Christendom who have gone 
out to galvanise what is virtually dead and in 
this way to keep the deluded natives from the 
light of Christ who alone can give them peace. 
Let me briefly illustrate this statement. The 
followers of Zoroaster are a vanishing quan- 
tity. It is not the Buddha of the Pitakas but 
the Buddha of the marvellously incredible birth- 
stories who appeals to the masses in Ceylon, In- 
dia, Thibet, Siam, Japan. The power of Mo- 
hammed is indeed great, and it is even extend- 
ing; but wherever he holds sway the people are 
in a backward condition and the ethics of Islam 
is such that Mohammedan lands are notoriously 
corrupt, whether it is Turkey, Persia, or Egypt. 
It may be said that equally disreputable condi- 
tions prevail in Christendom, but there is this 
difference. Evils do exist but under protest 
and never a day passes without the corrup- 
tions being exposed and attempts put forth to 
get rid of them. In pagan lands the iniquitous 



112 The Faith and the Fellowship 

conditions have the approval of the respective 
religions or they are ignored by the religious 
leaders who are more concerned with ceremo- 
nial rites and usages than with moral impera- 
tives which touch the daily life and social re- 
lations. ' ' No man knows the meaning of Chris- 
tian until he has breathed for a year in the 
midst of the uncanny shadows of heathenism. ' ' 
This testimony from one who has lived there 
is no exaggeration. The difference between 
Christianity and paganism is one of atmos- 
phere, ideal and outlook; and no dispassionate 
study can lead us to any other conclusion than 
that the Gospel of Christ alone has the ele- 
ments of permanency which in successive gen- 
erations enables it to renew its youth and be 
equal to any task that may be imposed upon it. 

The comprehensiveness of Christianity is an- 
other worthy feature of this faith which has 
never confessed bankruptcy and looks into the 
future with fervent confidence. All life comes 
under its sway, and it is interested in every- 
thing that bears on the immediate or ultimate 
welfare of the whole human race. The familiar 
division of life into secular and sacred is a 
pagan inheritance which has been largely tinged 
with Jewish ritualistic conceptions. The mes- 
sage of the Incarnation lays emphasis on the 



The Conclusive Word 113 

sanctity of all life and of all of life. To the 
Christian vision all people that on earth do 
dwell have latent possibilities, and are capable 
of responding to the appeals for the largest sort 
of sacrifice and the deepest kind of piety and the 
fullest type of consecrated devotion. The ten- 
der democracy of Christ thus extends a wel- 
come to every nationality with the offer of 
equality of opportunity. "Wherever it has been 
tried this programme has been justified by 
the splendid results, and the call comes to the 
Church to permit no barriers which will im- 
pede the eif ective Christian transformations of 
life anywhere or which may postpone the day 
of the complete triumph of Christ. 

The gracious interest of the Gospel is further 
seen in the generous way that all disinterested 
human efforts have been endorsed. We now 
recognise with gratitude the ministry of sci- 
ence, art, music, literature, invention, travel, 
commerce, as agencies for the larger spread of 
Christianity, as they have also contributed to 
the clearer understanding of its wholesome 
truth. We no longer look askance at the find- 
ings of Darwin or the paintings of George 
Frederick Watts, or the oratorios of Handel, 
or the writings of Euskin, or the marvels 
wrought by Edison, or the reports of Nansen, or 
the influence of Dodge. They have all helped 



114 The Faith and the Fellowship 

to enrich the meaning of Christianity and we 
do justly honour them even though it may not 
imply our committal to everything associated 
with their work. Indeed, as we read the his- 
tory of the Christian centuries we find that 
Christianity has freely appropriated the best 
in paganism on the principle that these upward 
strivings of the soul are proofs of the benign 
presence of God in the midst of all peoples. 
We have thus had conserved for later genera- 
tions the philosophy of Greece and the law of 
Eome ; while the contact with the non-Christian 
religions through its Christian converts has 
brought into the Church elements which have 
emphasised the many-sidedness of Christian 
character and enterprise. 

There is furthermore an opulence in Chris- 
tianity which strikes to the very depths of 
life. The superlative language of Paul was not 
of the nature of exaggeration. *^0 the depth 
of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowl- 
edge of God! how unsearchable are His judg- 
ments, and His ways past tracing out!'^ He 
prayed that the Ephesians ' ^may be strong to ap- 
prehend with all the saints what is the breadth 
and length and height and depth, and to know 
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.'^ 
Yes, there is nothing stinted or penurious in 



The Conclusive Word 115 

the ideas or the spirit of Christianity. It al- 
ways insists on a maximum standard of piety 
and purity and rejoices in thankworthy good- 
ness. The burden of the Sermon on the Mount 
is seen in the question of Jesus: ^^What do 
ye more than others ? ' ^ He implied that the spir- 
it of love never thinks of duty in any calculating 
fashion, but always does more than what is ex- 
pected. The Christian is thus at his post long 
after all others have abandoned their work 
through exhaustion, discouragement or failure. 
There is nothing local, parochial, or provincial 
in his worship and his service, for he is a citi- 
zen of the world in the sense that he holds fra- 
ternal fellowship with members of other na- 
tions, even when the call of patriotism may seem 
to conflict with such spiritual intercourse. This 
may appear to be far too visionary when we 
know that the international relations of Chris- 
tendom are to-day on a militaristic basis. But 
this anomalous fact makes it all the more neces- 
sary for those who believe in the ideals of 
Christ to interpret and apply them in ways that 
will compel attention and secure acceptance. 

It requires much more than the concluding 
paragraph of a chapter to write of the achieve- 
ments of Christianity. Stupendous as has been 
its growth, we are safe in saying that it is 
greater to-day than ever before. More glori- 



Ii6 The Faith and the Fellowship 

ous triumphs of grace are being wrought in its 
name in every nation than has ever been 
achieved in any yesterday which has passed 
into history. It has introduced new moral and 
spiritual forces into the world and quickened 
hope in backward peoples and turned on the 
light of life on the world lying in the darkness 
of sin, despair and death. It is a workable faith 
and it appeals to what God has wrought through 
it as a conclusive demonstration of its supreme 
fittedness to our needs and of the entire world. 
Wherever vital Christianity has exercised sway, 
it has exalted the status of womanhood, given 
protection to childhood and imparted dignity 
to manhood. The Christianity of the first cen- 
tury went to slaves and slums and changed not 
only the individuals but also their surround- 
ings, not only their moral and spiritual life but 
also their social and industrial life. The Chris- 
tianity of the twentieth century goes to barbar- 
ous tribes and converts them and their condi- 
tions by the transfusing touch of Divine grace 
and the results are marvellous if not miracu- 
lous. If there has been failure in Christendom 
it is acknowledged that this is due to the in- 
adequate and defective loyalty to the teachings 
of the Gospel, which so many profess to honour 
but few endeavour to practise. Our imperative 



The Conclusive Word iij 

concern is not to defend Christianity but to live 
it. Let us accept its honest challenge and give 
it a fair trial in wholehearted consecration to 
our Saviour and Lord. 

"Hail, Saviour, Prince of Peace! 
Thy Kingdom shall increase, 

Till all the world Thy glory see, 
And righteousness abound 
As the great deep profound, 

And fill the earth with purity!" 



CHAPTER EIGHT: THE CHURCH 
IDEA 



*'The Church of Christ is a fellowship. It is a fellowship 
with Jesus Christ; that is the divine element in it. It is a fel- 
lowship with the brethren; that is the human element in it, 
The Rock on which the Church was built was a man confessing 
— ^not the man apart from his confession, as Romanists insist, 
nor the confession apart from the man, as many Protestants 
argue. It was a man in whom long companionship with Jesus 
and the revelation from the Father had created a personal trust 
in His Messianic mission; and the faith which had grown out 
of the fellowship had the mysterious power of making the fel- 
lowship which had created it more vivid and real; for faith, in 
its primitive sense of personal trust, is fellowship become self- 
conscious. Faith is what makes fellowship know itself to be 
fellowship, and not haphazard social intercourse. . . . The indi- 
vidual believer is never lost in the society, and he is never alone 
and separate. The bond of union is not an external framework 
impressed from without, but a sense of fellowship springing 
from within. The believer 's union to Christ, which is the deep- 
est of all personal things, always involves something social. 
The call comes to him singly, but seldom solitarily.^' 

— Thomas M, Lindsay: **The Church and the Ministry 
in the Early Centuries/* pages 6, 7. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

THE CHUBCH IDEA 

NO institution has received so mncli criti- 
cism in every age like the church. This 
is due in part to the misconceptions 
which exist concerning its place and mission. 
We often hear dismal utterances of the collapse 
of the Church and cynical references to its work, 
and yet the fact remains that this organisation 
continues to grow. In every generation men 
have seemed to see the Church tottering and 
about to fall ; it has not done so but has rather 
revived its life and renewed its youth and taken 
a new start in its career of world-wide benefi- 
cence. Whatever views we hold about it we 
must acknowledge that it is a historical organ- 
isation and that it professes to continue per- 
petually, even to the end of time. What is its 
significance according to its founder Jesus 
Christ and its best interpreters and most loyal 
supporters ? 

The name ecclesia or church is found only 
twice in the Gospels and on both occasions it is 
in the Gospel of Matthew (16. 18; 18. 17) ; but 
the fact of the Church occurs quite often in the 

121 



122 The Faith and the Fellowship 

reported teachings of Jesus. He probably did 
not refer to it by name for the same reason that 
He did not use the name Messiah or Christ of 
Himself, lest He should be misunderstood and 
needlessly come into antagonism with the re- 
ligious leaders of the time. The word ecclesia 
corresponds to the Old Testament word qahdl, 
which means assembly and implies the relation- 
ship of its members to Jehovah, particularly in 
worship. The New Testament meaning empha- 
sises the sanctity of spiritual fellowship with 
God in Jesus Christ. The word synagogue 
which was more commonly used corresponds to 
the word eddh, which means congregation. It is, 
however, used only once of a Christian assembly 
and that in the epistle of James 2. 2, and this is 
explained by the fact that he was addressing 
the Christians of the Dispersion who would 
have understood its significance and would 
have appreciated the reminder that the Church 
was more closely related to the synagogue than 
to the Temple. 

It is, however, in the writings of Paul and 
in the book of Acts that we find most frequent 
mention of the word ecclesia, where it is used 
86 times, while in the rest of the New Testa- 
ment it is used only 24 times.* A number of 

* Lindsay : * * The Church and the Ministry in the Early Cen- 
turies/' p. 5. 



The Church Idea 123 

synonymous expressions are used wHcli convey 
the truth more clearly. Paul refers to the 
Church as ^^he household of the faith/ ^ which 
expresses the thought that the faithful are 
members of a family linked to each other by the 
ties of brotherhood (Gal. 6. 10). It is *^a tem- 
ple of God'^ and here the dignity of sanctity 
is set forth as a development in ample pro- 
portions (I Cor. 3. 16). It is the *^body of 
Christ^' and this phrase suggests the thought 
of the complete dependence of the believer on 
Christ, who is the head and who imparts 
strength, growth, and endurance in the mys- 
tical unity of the faith (Eph. 1. 23). One of the 
most refreshing ideas is that of the Church as 
a * ^fellowship,'' which implies the union and 
communion of the believers, based as it is on 
their fundamental and prior fellowship with 
God in Christ. So vital is this relationship 
that it has broken down all barriers of caste 
and country and made of the Church the great- 
est democracy which the world has ever seen. 
It is social in its spirit but it transcends guilds, 
lodges and societies which are more or less lo- 
cal in character. While not primarily a be- 
nevolent organisation, the Church has admin- 
istered relief to the sick and poor and has been 
the inspirer, the founder, and the maintainer 
of a diversity of charities, far in excess of any- 



124 ^^^ Faith and the Fellowship 

thing elsewhere. The word Church is derived 
from the Greek word hnriakon, ^^that which be- 
longs to the Lord.'' The sound of the word 
in the original is still retained in the Scotch 
word hirl{>. We are not pressing the meaning 
of the word when we say that it stands for the 
idea of devotion to God in Christ. It has a lo- 
cal bearing as when believers gathered in a 
particular town are addressed as ^Hhe church 
of God which is at Corinth even them that are 
sanctified in Christ Jesus. ' ' It is also used 
with reference to the gathering for purposes 
of worship (I Cor. 11. 18). There is a more 
general application where we read that fear 
came upon ^^the whole Church," and again that 
^Hhe Church had peace, being edified'' (Acts 5. 
11; 9. 31). 

A distinction must be made between the King- 
dom of God and the Church. The first is a 
perfect society where God perfectly reigns over 
souls who are being perfected by grace divine. 
This ideal is that far off divine event to which 
the whole of the redeemed creation moves. Paul 
uses this phrase as an equivalent for *^ right- 
eousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" 
(Rom. 14. 17) ; here the thought is that of the 
inspiring principle in the life of the Christian, 
which is obedience to him who hath loved him 
with an everlasting love. Those who are thus 



The Church Idea 125 

inspired labour for the establishment of the 
rule of the eternal Father and enjoy a pro- 
found kinship with all who are of the same 
mind. Those who think of Jesus as influenced 
almost altogether by an eschatological outlook 
have misread the gospels. It is true that He 
had the apocalyptic consciousness and that He 
expected the stages in the development of the 
Kingdom to be marked by cataclysmic changes. 
This has indeed happened in the revolutions 
and crises of history. But Jesus was not an 
alarmist predicting the speedy ending of the 
world, and so setting before His followers a 
scheme of life and a rule of living which were 
of a temporary character. The parables of 
the Kingdom disprove this contention. The 
parable of the mustard seed refers to the ex- 
ternal development of the Kingdom from small 
beginnings; that of the leaven to its inward 
transforming influence; the statement that 
^'the field is the world" emphasises its univer- 
sality (Matt. 13. 31, 33, 38). He thus had in 
mind an ideal society which was to be spiritual 
in character, universal in outlook, progressive 
in method, persistent in purpose, and perma- 
nent in duration. 

The Church is the unique agent which gives 
earthly expression to this heavenly ideal 
through forms of worship and methods of ac- 



126 The Faith and the Fellowship 

tivity which look forward to that glorious time 
when God shall be all and in all. The Church 
is not the Kingdom of God on the earth, but 
the means by which it is realised. This is 
done by bringing men and women into union 
with God through Jesus Christ and so enabling 
them to experience the sovereignty of divine 
grace in their lives. This notable and note- 
worthy agency was founded by Jesus Christ 
Himself. It was inevitable that an organisation 
should result from the companionship of Jesus 
and His disciples, and in fact it was necessary 
for the propagation and perpetuation of His 
redemptive purpose for the whole world. We 
cannot think of Jesus as a sort of a travelling 
evangelist dropping the good seed of the King- 
dom here and there and not providing for the 
time when the seed shall germinate and yield a 
golden harvest. Surely the Master of us all 
was not so unsystematic and spasmodic in His 
ideals and efforts. 

The purpose of the Church is seen in the 
words of the great commission: *^make disci- 
ples of all the nations, baptising them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
Holy Spirit : teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I commanded you. ' ' Let them pro- 
claim the gospel of God's redeeming and for- 
giving love. Let those who accept it be initi- 



II 



The Church Idea 127 

ated into membership by baptism. Let them be 
trained in holiness of life that they may enjoy 
the divine rule of freedom in the liberty of the 
Spirit and bear testimony from day to day to 
the efficacy of the grace of God in Jesus Christ 
the blessed Saviour. Of primary importance 
is the purpose of the society. Questions of pol- 
ity are of secondary and subordinate consid- 
eration. They have to do with matters of ad- 
ministration and will necessarily be changed to 
suit the particular needs of the times, the coun- 
try, and the people. The organisation will 
needs be flexible as to methods of procedure 
and it will be a mark of wisdom to keep it so, 
as long as the spirit of allegiance to Jesus 
Christ is the inspirational influence. Many of 
the practices of the Church have reflected the 
customs of the times and were adaptations of 
conditions which prevailed in the social insti- 
tutions of the land where the Church had been 
established. For instance the laying on of 
hands was an impressive ceremony taken over 
from the synagogue. It was a symbol of sup- 
plication to God for the bestowal of blessing 
and not a sign of the conveyance of blessing 
by those who practised this rite. Sunday was 
originally a day dedicated to the sun-god; 
Christmas and Easter were at one time pagan 
festivals. There are missionaries who see pos- 



128 The Faith and the Fellowship 

sibilities for the Church in the Chinese practice 
of the worship of ancestors. In short, the sub- 
ject of forms is an open question to be left to 
the Christian judgment of each age and land 
so that the Church in these respective places 
should feel free to adapt and adopt whatever 
is seen to be profitable to the advance of the 
cause. We are not expected literally to copy 
the apostolic methods any more than the apos- 
tles themselves were supposed to copy all of the 
modes of the Master. Here also the truth holds 
good that ' ' the letter killeth, but the spirit giv- 
eth life.^' For instance, it is absurd to impose 
our Occidental institutions on Oriental peoples ; 
and the missionaries of statesmanlike vision 
have pointed out the fallacy and danger of any 
such course. A volume like ^^ Social Christian- 
ity in the Orient,^' by Clough, shows very con- 
clusively that what suits the complex conditions 
in a democracy like the United States is wholly 
unsuitable to the gregarious instincts of little 
village communities in India. There must be 
organisation but it will be for the sake of the 
new life in Christ which will find expression in 
accordance with the several and diverse needs 
of the respective peoples for whom it is in- 
tended. 

There are some good people who think that 
they can be Christians and yet not be identified 



The Church Idea 129 

with the Church. They have no warrant for 
this attitude anywhere in the New Testament. 
The idea of ^^ unattached Christians'' is for- 
eign to its teachings. The Christian life is im- 
possible in isolation. A solitary Christian is a 
contradiction and an inconsistency. The Chris- 
tian, moreover, who does not have enough of 
the grace of God to associate with other Chris- 
tians, however narrow and bigoted they may 
be, needs to learn the first principles of the gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ, which are faith, hope and 
love, in the clear and convincing expression of 
brotherhood. So then all who belong to Christ 
must needs seek the fellowship of each other 
for mutual edification and for united effort to 
spread the gospel of redeeming grace. The 
fact of such a society implies the exercise of 
discipline for its preservation and greater use- 
fulness. 

In the early days of its career the Church 
practised discipline with strictness and even se- 
verity. This was necessary in a young organi- 
sation when converts were being received from 
paganism, and the standards had to be main- 
tained. The same is true on the mission field 
at the present time. But as the Church grew 
in favour with man it became indifferent to the 
enquiry whether it was also increasing in fa- 
vour with God. The spirit of laxity therefore 



130 The Faith and the Fellowship 

crept in and after a time it asserted itself 
boldly and forcibly. Another reason for in- 
sistence on discipline was to enable the Church 
to develop Christian personality in its mem- 
bership. It furnished the favourable atmos- 
phere for the cultivation of the sterling vir- 
tues and the fragrant graces which are so dis- 
tinctive of the Christian character. When the 
standards were high as in the Apostolic Church, 
what a galaxy of spiritual talent made its ap- 
pearance, under the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit ! But no sooner was there a lowering of 
these standards, as in the post-apostolic Church 
in the very next century, than there was 
seen the practice of superficial Christian living. 
Whatever may be the explanation, there is one 
reason which cannot be ignored and that is that 
when the commands of Christ sat impressively 
on His followers there was spiritual advance, 
but when this was not the case there was a 
marked deterioration and an unwholesome in- 
fluence on the world. The truth which this fact 
brings home is that Christianity is comprehen- 
sive in extending a welcome to every penitent 
who trusts in Christ for salvation ; but it is also 
exclusive in that it will not tolerate any one 
who would compromise with evil of any kind. 
As John Bunyan quaintly remarked, there is 
^^Only room for body and soul, but not for body 



The Church Idea 131 

and soul and sin." Under these circumstances 
can we conceive of Christians who profess to 
have the spirit of the Master who yet refuse 
to identify themselves with the Church because 
they will not submit to its requirements, since 
they would be a sort of a free lance and have 
their own way. 

The Church was founded by Christ on Peter 
who made that adoring confession : ' ' Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God.'' In this 
sense the Church is founded on every member 
who enters it by the exercise of faith and the 
experience of personal union with the living 
Christ. Every member has made the personal 
surrender to God in Christ and realises from 
day to day that he must refer and defer to 
Christ as the standard of life. Those who have 
such an experience will know the faith which 
worketh by love and stand fast in the freedom 
wherewith Christ hath made them free. Jesus is 
at once founder and foundation of the Church ; 
but all Christians are the supporters of this 
holy structure, holy because of the programme 
of spiritual health and holiness which it es- 
pouses. Herein is found an explanation of the 
many defects of the Church. It is divine in its 
origin but it is also a very human institution 
and the elements which compose it have their 
inevitable limitations. In spite of the careful 



132 The Faith and the Fellowship 

scrutiny of those who enter the Church, it has 
happened that unworthy souls have found their 
way in; but who will say that such are openly 
tolerated and that their practices are counte- 
nanced? 

The thought of one Church controlling all 
others first made its appearance in the days 
after the apostles when the leaders of the 
Church had lost their spiritual power and were 
endeavouring to bolster up their position by 
the claims of apostolicity and catholicity in a 
spirit which was neither apostolic nor catholic. 
The Church at Antioch recognised the seniority 
of the mother Church at Jerusalem, but it did 
not acknowledge any submission to it as though 
it was the prime teacher. The later claims of 
the Church at Eome were based on political 
considerations as determined by the metropo- 
lis of the empire. But this Church had no in- 
trinsic virtue of spiritual excellence and had 
to prove its authority in the same way as all 
other local Churches, which were independent 
of each other but confessed the unity of fra- 
ternal fellowship in Christ. If one Church was 
more important than another it was on account 
of the greater service which it rendered and 
not on account of any material considerations 
like wealth or social standing. The same test 
must be applied in this age of practical proofs. 



The Church Idea 133 

Is the Church helpful in creating and enrich- 
ing the Christian life? Then it has the blessing 
of Christ and the appreciation of mankind. 
This is not only true of a local Church and of 
a denomination, but also of the Church as a 
whole. It is then the worst kind of schism when 
any particular Church presumes to dominate 
all others and to unchurch them because they 
refuse to accept its peculiar shibboleths. A 
Church may have historical continuity and 
trace its origin back to former centuries; but 
that is no valid claim to superiority any more 
than the ability to trace one's ancestry back 
to American Eevolutionists or the Pilgrim Fa- 
thers should give some more favourable con- 
sideration than others. The test is far more 
exacting and practical than that of antiquity 
and ancestry. That Church obtains our re- 
spect, receives our support and commands the 
future for God and humanity which comes 
nearest to the ideal of Christ and whose pro- 
gramme is in closest harmony with the spirit 
and will of Christ. It is not an institutional or 
sacerdotal test, but an inspirational and spiritu- 
al one. The marks of the Church must be inter- 
preted not in terms of mechanics but of dynam.- 
ics. It is not the machine but the power, 
whether of steam or of electricity, which is the 
important consideration. So also with the 



134 The Faith and the Fellowship 

Church. Where the presence of Christ is ex- 
perienced His people have devised ways and 
means by which they have been able to further 
His highest and supremest honour. The Church 
exists to realise and spread the sovereign su- 
premacy of Christ the Lord and Saviour. And 
those are accounted the most faithful and loyal 
who in season and out of season labour unto 
the building up of the body of Christ till all 
attain unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ. 



CHAPTER NINE: THE LOYAL FEL- 
LOWSHIP 



''We are made to serve each other; and if the idea of the 
church is to be realised, there must be, on the part of Christian 
men, the frank and cordial acceptance of their mutual obliga- 
tions, and an equally frank and cordial recognition of the pres- 
ence of the life of God and the supernatural illumination of 
the Holy Ghost in all who have received Christ. The restoration 
of ^the communion of saints,' instead of repelling people 
from the church, as some seem to fear, would constitute an irre- 
sistible attraction to it. The tendency to spiritual isolation is 
abnormal. It is generally the result of circumstances which 
have repressed, by failing to satisfy, the natural and instinctive 
longing of men to escape from the narrow and monotonous cir- 
cle of their personal anxieties and sorrows and joys into a 
larger and fuller life. Give them the chance of real fellowship, 
with the infinitely varied experience of a community, and the 
instinct will reveal its power. It would then become worth 
while to enter the church; and 'the privileges of church mem- 
bership' would cease to be almost nominal. The church would 
become infinitely richer in spiritual thought; it would have a 
larger and more varied knowledge of the perpetual revelation 
of God to those who have received the Holy Ghost; its spiritual 
and moral life would receive a freer and more complete develop- 
ment. ' ' 

— E. W. Bale: ** Essays and Addresses/ ' page 149, 



CHAPTER NINE 



THE LOYAIi FELLOWSHIP 



THE churcli was organized in a very quiet 
and informal manner. Jesus looked into 
the hearts of a few eager and earnest 
men and invited them to be associated with Him 
and they promptly responded. The fellowship 
which He thus organised was to be a communion 
of spirits and not a collection of nondescript 
persons. These early companions of the Mas- 
ter were called disciples because they were 
chosen by Jesus to learn His teaching and to be 
influenced by His example (Mark 3. 14 ; Luke 22. 
28). They were also known as apostles, for 
they were commissioned with the particular 
business of preaching the Gospel of Jesus 
(Mark 3. 14) . Their ability depended on the ex- 
tent of their sympathy with his purposes. He 
was the source of their life and it was for His 
sake and in His name that they engaged in the 
labour of evangelising the human race and es- 
tablishing the Kingdom of God. 

This society of kindred souls was a Brother- 
hood where no social or racial distinctions were 

137 



138 The Faith and the Fellowship 

considered. All such temporal discriminations 
were not timely. They were abolished in Christ 
in whom Jew and Gentile could meet with the 
strong consciousness of common hopes, desires 
and joys. They confessed that Christ was their 
Peace who had broken down the middle wall of 
partition and that where He is supreme there is 
neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, circum- 
cision nor uncircumcision, but Christ is all and 
in all (Eph. 2. 14; Gal. 3. 28; Col. 3. 11). Within 
this fraternal circle a large place was given for 
the development of individual traits which did 
not interfere with the compact solidity of the 
whole. In this respect it very much resembles 
a family where the brothers and sisters each 
go their own way in personal preferences but 
all go one way as to the honour, dignity, and 
unity of the whole family. Think of John a Jew 
writing to Greeks in Ephesus and considering 
nothing whatever about national temperaments 
and distinctions as he interpreted the idea of 
the family-fellowship of the Church and re- 
joiced in the fact that his readers participated 
in it (I John 1. 3, 4). The difference which he 
emphasised was not ethnical and ecclesiastical, 
but ethical and spiritual. 

There was one outstanding distinction which 
separated humanity into two classes — those 
who were of God and those who were of the 



The Loyal Fellowship 139 

world, the children of the light and the children 
of the darkness. ^' Light signifies purity, truth, 
goodness; as darkness signifies foulness, false- 
hood, malice'' (Findlay). All other distinctions 
appeared trivial and insignificant in compari- 
son with this one. It was a question of charac- 
ter which was of primary importance, and in 
urging this as the supreme test of fellowship, 
the blow was effectually aimed at all aristo- 
cratic pretensions and social prerogatives and 
considerations of wealth. In this respect, as 
we have already considered, the Church was 
the first democracy which the world has ever 
seen. Inspired by the spirit of brotherliness, 
slave and f reeborn mingled without embarrass- 
ment and found joy and rejoicing in each oth- 
er's companionship. 

The primary condition of membership is the 
confession of Christ. Every one acknowledged 
Him as Saviour and surrendered the whole life 
in loyal allegiance to do His will in all things. 
It was not merely a confession of words which 
could be glibly uttered by the repetition of a 
creed; it was rather a confession of deeds which 
was made not only at the outset but all through 
life, regardless of the change of circumstance. 
It was thereby shown that the members of this 
fraternity were moved by the instinct and im- 
pulse of that divine love which first appeared 



140 The Faith and the Fellowship 

in Jesus Christ the Son of the Eternal Father. 
It is well to remind ourselves that Jesus was 
particular about the conditions of membership. 
He cared less for numbers and more for obedi- 
ence. ^^He that will come after me, let him deny 
himself and take up his cross and follow me.'' 
Fellowship with Him meant much in the 
way of denial and the price was not light; but 
the compensations were far in excess of any 
losses or discomforts. It will thus follow that 
all who accept these terms will not lightly set 
aside the manifest obligations which involve 
and include sacrifice and toil. If this were re- 
membered continuously there will be fewer par- 
asites in the Church who live on the labours 
of others, fewer idlers who wish to have the 
benefits without bearing the burdens, and there 
will be more of whom it will be said that they 
are at it and always at it. 

It must be distinctly understood and repeat- 
edly stated that the privileges of membership 
do not consist in simply being the recipients 
of bounty, but also in being the imparters of 
grace to others. This mutual sympathy and 
obligation enrich the fellowship and make the 
unity warm, hearty and gladsome. There is 
recognised a wide diversity of gift and activi- 
ties according to talent and training; but it is 
all inspired by the one divine Spirit of life, 



The Loyal Fellowship 141 

light and love, which gives reality and vivid- 
ness to the abiding presence of Christ. Their 
hidden fellowship with Jesus is manifested in 
open fellowship with each other and the bonds 
which unite them are far stronger than those 
which fetter the members of lodges and other 
fraternal organisations. The right hand of fel- 
lowship is a symbol of the hearty welcome and 
this need not be withdrawn on account of any 
misunderstandings which may take place later. 
Such misadventures and misfortunes should be 
intelligently anticipated and earnestly avoided. 
The Christian fellowship is so profound be- 
cause it is based on the prior communion with 
God. Direct access to him through Jesus 
Christ gives a sense of spiritual freedom and a 
refreshing experience of the divine grace and 
mercy, and imparts the recreative energy of the 
everlasting love. Language cannot describe 
the abounding joy which takes possession of 
the soul when God has been found. But if it is to 
continue and increase there must be unrestrict- 
ed co-operation with each other. The rare se- 
crets of the Christian life are not found in soli- 
tude. It is not the celibate soul living in isola- 
tion who enjoys a full-orbed vision of the good- 
ness and holiness of God. Individual salvation 
is made secure as it is worked out in company 
with other like-minded souls; in fact it is pos- 



142 The Faith and the Fellowship 

sible only under these circumstances. ^'^We 
have fellowship one with another, ' ' wrote John 
the apostle, to which he added the words, ^^and 
the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all 
sin, ^ ' as though the two depended on each other 
and went together. This fellowship was one 
of the conspicuous features of the early Church. 
The members were hearty and honest in their 
relations with each other. One of the most no- 
torious exceptions was the Church at Corinth 
where jealousy had taken the place of charity, 
due to the spirit of excessive individualism 
which had put the entire organisation out of 
plumb. This spirit of fellowship was not con- 
fined to the local group but was extended to 
take in all the believers throughout the Roman 
empire and wherever the Gospel had obtained 
a stable lodgement. Those who were less fa- 
voured were thus helped by those who were bet- 
ter off in this world's goods as well as in spir- 
itual endowments. The poor in Jerusalem re- 
ceived contributions from the Christians of 
Macedonia, while the Church in Antioch became 
the centre of the missionary enterprises of the 
Apostle Paul and faithfully stood by him in his 
endeavours to spread the truths of the Chris- 
tian redemption far and near. It is easy to 
imagine what a strong argument such practical 
exhibitions of Christian interest proved towards 



The Loyal Fellowship 143 

unifying the entire Church and demonstrating 
the large charity and genuine catholicity of 
Christianity. 

We can think of the Church under a variety 
of aspects. It is a home where kindness is 
found and where disinterested love makes an 
atmosphere which is not only unique but won- 
derfully stimulating in the development of the 
virtues of charity and peace. The Church is a 
school and here goodness is cultivated and 
character is developed; discipline is also exer- 
cised within its bounds, not for the sake of the 
excommunication, but of the education of the 
members in perfecting holiness in the fear of 
the Lord. The Church is also a sanctuary 
where faith and hope are nurtured in the prac- 
tice of worship through prayer, meditation, and 
testimony ; it is the place where weary souls find 
consolation, and discouraged spirits obtain 
cheer, and those who are perplexed and dis- 
mayed receive guidance and strength to con- 
tinue in their allotted work with fidelity. How 
these and other ministrations are to be carried 
out must be left to the Church which enjoys the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit and therefore un- 
derstands how to meet and solve the particular 
problems which confront it. The early Church 
developed a polity which met its needs. But the 
leaders of a later day made the mistake when 



144 ^^^ Faith and the Fellowship 

they supposed that there was a special sanc- 
tity in the apostolic polity, as though the 
same Holy Spirit had ceased to guide subse- 
quent generations in terms of the explicit prom- 
ise of our Lord. It were unreasonable to sup- 
pose that the Church of to-day must operate in 
accordance with methods that were good 
enough in colonial centres of the first century 
instead of recognising the radically changed 
situation of the twentieth century. The Amer- 
ican Church is faced by problems due to immi- 
gration, the increase of city populations of a 
heterogeneous character, and the complications 
of industrialism, commercialism, and the un- 
precedented awakening of the social conscience. 
We are confident that the Holy Spirit is guid- 
ing the modern Church and encouraging the 
practice of the principle of adaptation. ^^The 
Christlike alone are genuine successors of the 
Apostles" — so wrote George Tyrrell who was 
expelled from the Eoman Catholic Church be- 
cause of his liberal ideas and his determination 
to recognise the presence of the Holy Spirit 
even where the ecclesiastical halo was not to 
be seen. Those who insist on ancient forms 
at any cost are obsessed by the glamour of an- 
tiquity and show themselves incapable of ap- 
preciating the contemporary activities of the 
living Christ. They need to be reminded of the 



The Loyal Fellowship 145 

oft-quoted test of Ignatius, expressed in the fa- 
miliar phrase: ^^ Wherever Christ Jesus is, 
there is the Catholic Church." 

The character of the members of the Church 
is very picturesquely advertised by the names 
by which they were known among themselves 
and by the outside world. The earliest name 
was that of disciples, which implied that they 
had accepted Jesus as their Master and were 
being guided by His rule of life, amenable to 
correction, responsive to instruction, submis- 
sive to discipline and direction. They were 
called brethren, since they acknowledged one 
common source of life, the Heavenly Father 
and the elder Brother Jesus Christ; bound to 
one another by such strong ties it was not pos- 
sible that superficial disturbances could lightly 
sever them. They were friends and so they 
were cordial in their companionship and shared 
their mutual joys and sorrows disinterestedly 
and loyally. They were known as the follow- 
ers of Christ, for they walked in His steps and 
made Him the pattern of their life whom they 
imitated as to the spirit of devotion which ani- 
mated Him continuously and consistently. They 
were believers and thus confessed their faith in 
Christ as Saviour from sin, and as the One who 
is sufRcient for all the trying seasons of the 
soul ; their confidence in Him was whole-hearted 



146 The Faith and the Fellowship 

and their experience of His grace had the ex- 
hilaration of uttermost gladness. Paul spoke 
of himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ 
and thereby declared how utterly he had sur- 
rendered his life to do the will of Christ at any 
cost; the secret of his marvellous career is in- 
dicated in this fact which he never hesitated 
to make known both to friend and foe, in sea- 
son and out of season. How readily they acted 
as witnesses and thus spoke from firsthand ex- 
perience of what Christ had done for them in 
bringing them out of darkness into light; they 
were, moreover, very happy of the privilege 
to communicate the blessed knowledge of a 
personal and present salvation to every one 
with whom they came in contact. They were 
further called saints in that they were striving 
after the ideal of holiness as set forth in the 
complete character of Christ; this was indeed 
their vocation, for they were called to be saints, 
and as long as they kept this thought before 
them they would be aspiring towards the splen- 
did goal of advance and achievement. It was, 
however, the name Christian, which has sur- 
vived all the changes of the centuries, which 
became ^Hhe cardinal title of the faith, ^^ and 
which expresses more fully than any of the 
other names the sublime distinctiveness of the 
charm and glory of the new life in Jesus Christ. 



The Loyal Fellowship 147 

The name advertises the honour of Christ and 
whoever bears it is under manifest obligation 
to be worthy of the solemn call and the sacred 
confession. 

It is then not some vague ideal to be dreamed 
about which is placed before us, but an inspir- 
ing reality which not only compels our atten- 
tion but summons us to instant action. And the 
Church which furnishes the suitable atmosphere 
for the working out of these things need offer 
no apology for its right to do work in the name 
of the Head of the whole Church. In the last 
analysis, no one can unchurch us except we our- 
selves ; and this is done by un-Christlike behav- 
iour which contradicts the most elementary 
truths of the Christian character. Dr. Slattery 
well says that ^^It is the unrecorded sainthood 
which has been made in the Church of the ages 
which is the most eloquent proof of the pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit in the world. We know 
only a few of the vast army of saints who have 
marched in silent triumph through the Chris- 
tian years. ' ' This fact furnishes the final argu- 
ment for the reality of the vital fellowship 
among Church members. Baptism is the ex- 
ternal symbol of the inward disposition of one 
who would enter the Church. It is a pledge of 
acceptance by Christ and it was instituted by 
Him to be a sign of the living experience of 



148 The Faith and the Fellowship 

union with Him. The Lord's Supper was insti- 
tuted by Jesus to be a constant reminder 
of His redemptive death and to be an occasion 
of union between all who are in union with 
Himself. This most sacred symbol of His re- 
deeming love has alas been the cause of much 
loveless contention among His followers who 
have read into the simple service of faith and 
fraternity many of the metaphysical and ritual- 
istic ideas of paganism. It is very depressing 
to read the chapter of the Church's history 
where the discordant sounds of anathemas are 
heard instead of the sweet music of Hallelujahs 
to the glory of the one and only Saviour. The 
day is coming when our vision will be purged 
so that we shall be able to see what is of mo- 
mentous import in the Christian life and how 
it can be realised through the fellowship of 
Christians, whatever their name or sign. We 
can easily see how great will be the force of 
such a testimony of Christ-inspired souls and 
what a conclusive argument it can be for the 
power of the living Christ in extending His 
supremacy. It will bring people of every tribe 
and nation into the membership of the Univer- 
sal Church which comprehends all sects and 
denominations in a blessed communion of souls 
who are akin in character to the Lord and Sa- 
viour of us all. 



CHAPTER TEN: THE CONTROL- 
LING PURPOSE 



^'The church is first of all a worshipping body. She sings 
praises and offers prayers unto God. She cultivates the devo- 
tional life and trains men to bow their heads and hearts before 
the King of heaven. Public worship is a force to be carefully 
safeguarded and constantly strengthened. A church becomes a 
more effective working church when it has once learned to 
pray and sing. Bringing the heart to the throne of grace in- 
creases all its capacities and makes it capable of larger service. 
Public worship, moreover, is the testimony which the church 
bears to the community of its faith in the God who has revealed 
himself in Christ. For this reason, public worship should be 
full- toned and jubilant. Paul was always concerned about the 
impression which the church in her worship might make upon a 
visiting stranger. All preachers who have the Pauline wisdom 
plan and labor for the improvement of their church worship. 
To give it a richer and more penetrating tone, to impart to it a 
higher beauty, to suffuse it with a more solemnising and sub- 
duing spirit, is to increase the power of the church, not only 
over the lives of its members, but over the feeling of the com- 
munity. ^ ' 

— Charles E, Jefferson: '^The Building of the Church/' 
page 117. 



CHAPTEE TEN 

THE CONTROLLING PURPOSE 

THE presence of the Church in any com- 
munity is regarded as a sign of civilisa- 
tion and enlightenment. Parents do not 
want to raise their families in a town without a 
Church, even though they themselves may have 
nothing to do with it. The church would seem 
to guarantee safety and to increase the value 
of real estate and to bring many other inci- 
dental advantages. There is an element of su- 
perstition underlying the popular conception 
of the Church and this is due to a failure to 
recognise what are its supreme functions. 
There is another misjudgment on the part of 
earnest people who expect the church to un- 
dertake all manner of philanthropic campaigns 
and so to convert the pulpit into a sounding 
board of all sorts of benevolent enterprises. 
The central interest for which the pulpit ex- 
ists will then be set aside and matters which 
belong to the circumference will be given the 
right of way. 

There is a difference between the platform 

151 



1^2 The Faith and the Fellowship 

and the pulpit. As long as there is a desk with 
the open Book of God upon it, the preacher 
must speak out of the book the message of eter- 
nal life, and bring God near to men, and en- 
able them to realise that in the crises of life 
God is with them. This is a rare opportunity 
of the Church because there is no other institu- 
tion which can engage in this particular work 
to make real the spiritual life, by giving vital- 
ity to religious and moral beliefs. Where this 
is faithfully done it will feed the flame of de- 
votion; it will quicken the aspirations towards 
God; it will deepen the experience of sanctity; 
it will develop the character that is patterned 
after Christ ; and it will furnish outlets for the 
exercise of love. 

When Jesus uttered His prophetic protest in 
the outer courts of the Temple, He quoted the 
words of Isaiah and gave it a larger meaning: 
^^My house shall be called a house of prayer 
for all the nations.'^ This declaration bears 
upon the central purpose of the Church. The 
secret of its power is expressed in one of His 
memorable sayings: ^^ Where two or three are 
gathered together in my name, there am I in 
the midst of them." Where Christ's presence 
is spiritually realised the atmosphere is one 
that makes for jubilant worship. In a general 
way worship is the recognition of what is 



The Controlling Purpose 153 

worth while in character and deed. We look 
with admiration on a great painting like 
^^ Washington Crossing the Delaware" and we 
remind ourselves of the heroic days in the early 
period of our national life. We stand with rev- 
erence before Gaudens' statue of Lincoln and 
recall the unique services which he rendered to 
the nation in most trying times. But this is not 
worship in the religious sense. True worship 
consists of the grateful and reverential ap- 
proach of the soul to God the Father in the 
name of the Mediator of our confession, Jesus 
Christ our Saviour and Lord. And this is done 
in a spirit of faith and freedom. The worship 
of the Church is intended to satisfy the instinc- 
tive craving of the human heart for God. Men 
are often unaware of this urgent need and look 
to unsatisfying places for relief, but find none. 
The pressure of life's struggle is so great, 
the strain in commercial activities is so severe, 
the might of material things is so appalling, 
that whether men recognise it or not, whether 
they acknowledge it or not, they are yearning 
for the living God because He alone can remove 
the discord of spirit and pacify the distress of 
soul. Here then is the great mission of the 
Church, to enable people to experience that God 
is a refuge and strength, a very present help in 
every time of need. Just as the Holy of Holies 



154 The Faith and the Fellowship 

was the central shrine in the ancient Temple, 
so the place of prayer is at the heart of the 
Church's worship. Everything bears upon it 
and everything is influenced by it. The very 
atmosphere of the service is surcharged by the 
spirit of devotion and only those who come in 
an expectant attitude receive its benefits. 
Prayer is a most exacting exercise demanding 
severe discipline of the will and concentrated 
surrender of the spirit of man to the Spirit 
divine. To think of prayer mainly as petition 
is to emphasise only one aspect of it and that 
not the most important. ^^I will hear what 
God the Lord will speak'' — the act of listening 
with intent to know the will of God and to obey 
it is an important feature of prayer. There 
is so much restlessness because of uncertainty. 
If I know that I am in the line of the divine 
purpose and that I have the divine approval in 
my present occupation, what a source of 
strength that fact does impart to me! It was 
not fatalism but faith in the supreme sover- 
eignty of the will of God that gave such cour- 
age to Calvin and the Puritans. A later age 
may pass judgment on their mistakes, but we 
cannot deny that they were true to their con- 
victions and this came from their confidence in 
God. If we excel them at the cost of moral sta- 
bility it is a very doubtful advantage. 



The Controlling Purpose 155 

The psalmist was confused and perplexed un- 
til he went into the sanctuary and then the 
scales fell off his eyes. The prophet Jeremiah, 
at a time when the trial of his faith was keen, 
expostulated with God, saying: ^^ Righteous 
art thou, Lord, when I plead with thee : yet 
would I reason the cause with thee: wherefore 
doth the way of the wicked prosper T' (Chap. 
12. 1.) He thus wrestled with doubt and laid it 
low and there came from out the dark cloud 
the voice which spoke encouragement to his 
soul. This is an illustration of the reasoning 
type of prayer which is accompanied with in- 
tense meditation. A different kind finds ex- 
pression in the jubilant words of another who 
was uttering his gratitude and praise in the 
thrilling sentences: ^^ Bless the Lord, my 
soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy 
name.'' Thanksgiving and praise are also 
forms of prayer, for so do we confess our glad- 
ness for the divine benefits which are given not 
according to the measure of our asking, but 
exceeding abundantly above all that we do ask 
or think, even according to the riches in glory 
in Christ Jesus. There are many places outside 
the Church where prayer can be offered and 
times other than the specified hours of public 
worship. But that makes all the more signifi- 
cant the intelligent use of the means of grace in 



156 The Faith and the Fellowship 

the house of prayer which is consecrated for 
that particular purpose. 

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers :" 

How necessary then that we should frequent- 
ly and regularly find our way to the sanctuary 
of God where the voice of the Spirit can be 
heard. If there must needs be an oratory in 
every heart there must also be a place where 
kindred spirits gather that they may obtain re- 
plenishment and enrichment. It is indeed in 
such an atmosphere that the personality can be 
suitably developed. When Lord Clyde faced 
Delhi with his small army, he turned to his offi- 
cers one Sunday evening and asked them to se- 
lect the bravest men to lead the forlorn hope. 
They replied that a prayer meeting was in ses- 
sion at the time in camp and that if he attended 
it he may be able to find the desired men. And 
he was not disappointed. These men were fear- 
less because through prayer they had laid hold 
on the Eternal God and they were ready to 
respond to the call of duty even at the cost of 
death. Worship is sacerdotal when more 
thought is given to the external performance of 
ritual and ceremonial on the plea that things 
must be done decently and in order. Worship 
is sacramental when the adoring approach 



The Controlling Purpose 157 

to God in Christ, whatever the manner of it 
may be, is the primary consideration, under the 
impression that God is Spirit and they who wor- 
ship Him mnst do so in spirit and in trnth, 
with as little of the mechanical accessories as 
possible. Let us, however, not discard any of 
the helps so long as the worship imparts 
strength for the performance of the work of 
life, as becometh those who know and honour 
the living Christ. 

Our fathers worshipped in unpretentious 
structures, but they were warmed by the fires 
of faith and forgot all the disadvantages and 
inconveniences of their material surroundings. 
The room was small and it required little fire 
to heat it. We now meet in a spacious audito- 
rium, but have we overlooked the necessity for 
increasing the heating capacity? You cannot 
obtain spiritual fire from such secondary and 
subordinate agencies like high class music, cul- 
tured pulpit eloquence, excellent entertainments 
and enjoyable sociables. These have a valued 
place in the work of the Church, but they can 
never serve as a substitute for the spirit of 
flaming devotion to Christ, the experience of 
His constraining love, and the vivid conscious- 
ness of His comforting presence. These are 
the blessings which give the distinctive note 
and tone to the Church, and all who are associ- 



158 The Faith and the Fellowship 

ated with it have a warmth and heartiness of 
disposition not obtainable in any other society. 
Let it further be remembered that even in the 
Church they are obtained only through the me- 
dium of worship. 

There are some who declare that they go to 
Church to be impressed and not to be instruct- 
ed. Such a conception savours of the sacerdotal 
with the dim religious light, the mystic swell of 
the organ, and the voice of the preacher lost in 
the intonings of the priest. This is not the 
Protestant idea. The pulpit is made central in 
order that worship might be made intelligent 
and acceptable. A weak pulpit means an effete 
Christianity without vigour to act as the puri- 
fier of social conditions and as the inspirer of 
redemptive graces and virtues. The Church 
which makes much of preaching knows how to 
confess its vibrant faith to the world and real- 
ises its mission to give a spiritual interpreta- 
tion of all life. There never has been a greater 
need for such work and the opportunity is rich 
with urgency to direct people out of the quag- 
mire of doubt and sin and point them to the 
Holy Saviour who also is the Lord of life. His 
control over the individual has never failed to 
stir the emotions to move the will and to give 
the peace of God which passeth all understand- 
ing. Faithful hearing by the pew is the tru- 



The Controlling Purpose 159 

est kind of worship, because it implies self- 
examination and penitence, faith and consecra- 
tion, resolution and quick action. Thus there 
is a quickening of heart and life that gives evi- 
dence in the practical fruits of righteousness, 
peace and joy in a spirit of holiness. 

The pulpit must take its work more seriously 
if it would command a hearing from the world. 
The Church must lead the thinking of the age 
and form public opinion on the great moral 
issues in the way that Savonarola dominated 
Florence, and Calvin influenced Geneva, and 
Knox appealed to Scotland, and Hugh Price 
Hughes and Dale and Clifford spoke to Eng- 
lish Nonconformity as well as to all England, 
in the ways that Beecher made himself heard 
in the great crisis of our national life and 
Phillips Brooks preached to all classes in the 
Eepublic. What has been done can again be 
done and the Macedonian call is most urgent 
in these days of strife and anguish and uncer- 
tainty. The greatest need then is not for or- 
ganisers and advertising agents but for preach- 
ers with the prophetic unction who will see the 
vision of human need and divine supply and 
understand it and interpret it with passionate 
conviction and compelling persuasion. Let it 
further be remembered that the Church is not 
a mausoleum in honour of a dead Christ nor a 



l6o The Faith and the Fellowship 

museum of outworn beliefs and antiquated 
creeds. It is the place where Christian charac- 
ter is built up and where Christians are enabled 
to work the works of God in the name of the 
living Christ. Here men and women receive 
spiritual instruction and the young people are 
given religious education so that they grow up 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The 
minister is at the head of all the activities which 
make for constructive evangelism, and the 
membership of his church is always found at 
the forefront of all movements working for 
civic reform, social righteousness, moral prog- 
ress and spiritual liberty. 

There never has been an age when more was 
heard about brotherhood, arbitration and inter- 
national peace, and when appearances seemed 
to justify the dawning of a new and better era. 
But events have conclusively shown that it is 
one thing to talk smoothly, and a different mat- 
ter to act in accord with the nobly gracious 
professions. The conflicts with Gnosticism and 
Marcionitism and other undermining errors in 
the early centuries could not have been success- 
ful for the Church if the leaders as well as the 
rank and file of the Church membership had 
not been instructed in the faith. It is not any 
different to-day when such insidious and subtle 
fallacies like Christian Science, Eussellism, 



The Controlling Purpose i6i 

Spiritualism, Ethical Culturism and the like are 
being offered as substitutes for the evangelical 
Christianity of the New Testament. It is the 
imperative task of the preacher who is also a 
teacher to educate his people in the meaning 
and might of the Gospel. It is his first busi- 
ness and his last business and his business all 
the time to be an evangelist and bring people 
one by one into fellowship with God and Christ. 
But after this has been done, it is incumbent 
on him in even a more exacting way to train 
his people that they may become intelligent and 
useful members of the Church. 

From its very inception the Church has had 
to contend with error and to struggle for its 
existence and for its increasingly growing in- 
fluence. The great need on the mission field is 
for more teachers who will not only fit the con- 
verts for baptism but make them worthy mem- 
bers of the native Church. The apostle Paul's 
ideal for a strong church is set forth in the 
epistle to the Ephesians. The ascended Christ 
purposed that there should be a wide diversity 
of gifts for the benefit of the church consisting 
of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and 
teachers, ^^for the equipment of the saints,'' 
that they may engage in the business of minis- 
tering efficiently in the name of Christ, for the 
upbuilding of the Church (chap. 4. 11 ff.). The 



i62 The Faith and the Fellowship 

forms which this training should take will de- 
pend on circumstances. 

The Sunday School has rendered a right 
noble service and many thousands have been 
led into the church through its doors. But it 
has not always been able to hold the young 
men when they reach the period of adolescence. 
Many causes contribute to this misfortune for 
this is just the time when youth most needs 
the guidance of experience. "We have not un- 
derstood the psychology of youth sufficiently 
enough and we have not adequately appreciated 
the marvel of personality, and so our approach 
to young life has not been marked by versa- 
tility and adaptability. This is explained by 
the other fact that we have not had trained 
teachers in the Sunday School and that good 
intentions have taken the place of proper 
preparation. ^^Tell it not in Gath'' but is it 
not true that many teachers are ignorant of the 
elementary teachings of the Bible, not to speak 
of the great truths of Christianity and the his- 
tory of the Church in its various appeals to 
humanity? The introduction of the graded 
lessons has caused so much confusion and has 
even been met with opposition because the 
ground had not been prepared. From present 
indications we are, however, confident that this 
important institution will be put upon a more 




The Controlling Purpose 163 

stable basis and accomplish a far greater work. 
When this is done the classes for catechumens 
and probationers will be made the connecting 
link between the Sunday School and Church. 

Can there be anything more important and 
indispensable than for the Church to give it- 
self more faithfully to the work of deepening 
the life of devotion, of enlightening the con- 
science, of educating its members in a clearer 
understanding of the whole truth of God, and 
of giving them the requisite incentive to live and 
act soberly, righteously and godly in the world 
and so hastening the coming of the Kingdom 
of grace and redemption? 

"If peace be in the heart, 
The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty, 
The midnight lightning flash but shows the path of duty, 
Each living creature tells some new and joyous story. 
The very trees and stones all catch a ray of glory. 
If peace be in the heart/^ 



CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE SACRED 
WRITINGS 



' ' God-in-Christ by the Holy Spirit teaches men still in many 
ways — through the Bible, by means of the Church, always ap- 
pealing to the individual reason and conscience, which is en- 
lightened from within as well as from without. But the chief 
source of authority is that record of Divine revelation, cul- 
minating in Christ, which is contained in the Bible. In that 
Divine library is given a sufficient record of a series of revela- 
tions gathering round the revelation, partly leading up to Jesus 
Christ our Lord, partly leading on from Him; but of the whole 
He is the center, the climax, and the crown. We are dependent 
on the New Testament for the transmission of knowledge con- 
cerning Christ; and for this and other reasons the collection 
of books called the Bible occupies a position of its own, which 
constitutes it, when rightly interpreted, a supreme rule of faith 
and practice for Christian believers. Christ is first as Lord — 
the whole Christ of the New Testament. The Bible becomes 
the Word of Christ, if it be rightly read and understood, with 
Himself as the Light of the whole. The Holy Spirit has taught 
also from the first in the community of the Christian Church 
and so teaches still. But the Bible is the norm for the Church, 
not the Church for the Bible. The duty of the Church in rela- 
tion to the Scriptures is to preserve, transmit, distribute, inter- 
pret, and obey.'' 

— W. T, Davison: ''The Chief Corner-Stone^'^ 'gage 35. 



H 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 



THE SACRED WRITINGS 



THE Church was organised for the purpose 
of maintaining and propagating the liv- 
ing experience of Jesus Christ as per- 
sonal Saviour. Its aim was to direct men to 
God through Christ so that they may pattern 
their lives in accordance with His perfect char- 
acter and demonstrate His gracious sufficiency 
to meet the deepest needs of mankind. It was 
inevitable that a company of people who were 
brought together with such a motive should in 
course of time have some literary memorials 
of their faith which would testify to succeeding 
generations concerning the nature of their re- 
ligious life and influence. The Christian Church 
of the first century had in its possession at the 
outset a remarkable set of documents which 
were considered of supreme and indispensable 
worth for religious guidance. This was the 
Old Testament which was the growth of over 
fifteen hundred years and which recorded the 
will and purpose of God in divers ways. Now 
through the utterance of prophet, again in the 
ecstatic aspiration of saint, or the jubilant 

167 



i68 The Faith and the Fellowship 

praise of psalmist, or the didactic speech of a 
preacher, or the impressive deed of a valiant 
hero, or in the patriotic activities or disloyal 
lapses of the chosen people — ^in these and other 
like ways God was making self -disclosures of 
Himself. The Old Testament is a remarkably 
varied collection of different kinds of literature. 
It consists of graphic history, interesting biog- 
raphy, curious genealogies, precise rules of 
ritual, elaborate law codes, apocalyptic visions, 
stirring prayers, practical precepts, fervent 
songs, and fiery speeches. Among its authors 
were peasants and princes who were equally 
moved by the Divine Spirit to express them- 
selves by recording their experiences, their 
hopes and their desires concerning God and 
duty. 

Like the small spring from which the majes- 
tic river flows, like the protoplasmic germ 
from which life in all its richness and wonder 
has developed, so the beginnings of the Old 
Testament were almost insignificant; but they 
embosomed vast and limitless potentialities. 
Like most ancient literature the germ of this 
notable library consisted of folk-songs as the 
Song of the well (Numbers 21. 17, 18), and 
David's lament over Jonathan (IISam.l.l9ff.). 
In more settled conditions the opportunity was 
availed of for historical writings. Amos was 



The Sacred Writings 169 

the first prophet who preserved his spoken 
appeals in written form, and he in common with 
many another prophet of a later day was led 
to this way of speaking, because their public 
appearances were prohibited by the rulers. To 
these earlier writings others were added from 
time to time, and after the return from exile 
under Ezra and Nehemiah they were gathered 
together. This latter period has well been 
called the golden age of Old Testament litera- 
ture. The three divisions were (1) the Law, 
which consisted of the Pentateuch; (2) the 
Prophets, which included the historical books 
of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, known 
as the ^ ^former prophets,'^ and the distinctly 
prophetical books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel 
and the Twelve — called the * Matter prophets"; 
(3) the Writings, which were a miscellaneous 
collection of books and contained the Psalms, 
Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Euth, Lamenta- 
tions, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehe- 
miah and Chronicles. This entire list of books 
was called the Old Testament Canon and it was 
regarded as the standard of Biblical authority. 
The process of formation by which this decision 
was reached continued from B. C. 400 to B. C. 
200 and even down to A. D. 96. 

The Old Testament was justly regarded by 
the Christian Church as its most precious 



lyo The Faith and the Fellowship 

legacy. It was the book which nourished the 
faith of our blessed Saviour, from which the 
apostle Paul obtained his illumination, and 
which was the efficient director of the religious 
life of the early disciples. It helped in the for- 
mation and development of character and influ- 
enced the practices of Christian conduct. It 
was, moreover, used with discrimination ; some 
parts being regarded as more suggestive than 
other parts. The Psalms, for instance, speak 
more comfortingly than the genealogical lists, 
and the prophets are more direct in their ap- 
peals for righteousness than the priests with 
their ancient and venerable ritual. ^^ Without 
its ample areas and wider watersheds,^' says 
Principal George Adam Smith, ^^the rivers 
which grew in the new dispensation could never 
have gained one-tenth of their volume or their 
influence. ^^ 

The apostles gave their testimony to a living 
and redeeming Christ and those who accepted 
their word received deliverance from sin and 
rejoiced in the consciousness of Christ which 
gave them victory over evil. The Gospels con- 
stitute a fourfold witness to the life and labour 
of Jesus Christ. They are also interpretations 
of the supreme character of His person and the 
central place which He must have in the lives 
of all His followers. The epistles were called 



The Sacred Writings 171 

forth by the urgent needs of the churches which 
had been founded by the apostles. They were 
written for immediate guidance in matters of 
teaching and practice, to set some Christians 
right in their understanding of the gospel of 
redemption, to show others what was expected 
of them as worthy followers of Christ, and to 
point out to yet others the principles which 
should guide them in their individual, social 
and church relationships. These letters were 
read frequently at the gatherings of the Chris- 
tians and gradually they assumed a place of 
authority, since they were almost altogether 
written by the apostles of our Lord, who were 
supposed to have a clearer and more direct 
knowledge of the spirit and claims of Christ. 
There was no thought in the minds of any of 
these writers that their letters were of equal 
authority with the Old Testament. Not one of 
them would have presumed to regard his lite- 
rary utterances as comparing in worth and 
weight with the holy oracles of the old dispen- 
sation. The high position which these docu- 
ments, however, subsequently occupied was due 
to an attempt on the part of the Church to de- 
fend the faith against the perversions and dis- 
tractions of those who would do violence to its 
essential message. 
The New Testament was formed in opposi- 



172 The Faith and the Fellowship 

tion to the heresies of Marcion and Montanus 
about 180; but even down to the fifth century 
there were differences of opinion as to the 
right of some books to a place in the Canon. 
It was not till the Council of Trent in 1546, 
which was summoned in opposition to the 
Eef ormation that the decisive word was spoken 
concerning what was really canonical. The 
Protestant leaders moreover contended that the 
test of canonicity is not primarily ecclesiastical 
but experimental. In the words of one of the 
Reformed symbols: ^^We know those books to 
be canonical and the sure rule of our faith not 
so much by the common accord and consent of 
the Church, as by the testimony and inward 
illumination of the Holy Spirit, which enables 
us to distinguish them from other ecclesiastical 
books upon which, however useful, we cannot 
found any articles of faith. '^ Luther and the 
other Eeformers declared the Bible to be the 
divinely inspired Word of God because it spoke 
to the depths of their spiritual life with a per- 
suasiveness which was winsome and comforting 
beyond the ability of any other book so to do. 
Many of our theories about the Bible have come 
to us wholesale from rabbinic Judaism. We 
must therefore dispossess ourselves of them be- 
fore we can adequately appraise the full value 
of this book. If we have used our Christian 



The Sacred Writings 173 

right to criticise the position of Judaism as im- 
perfect, this privilege should surely extend to 
all its opinions, dogmatic and otherwise, on 
every subject, including its estimate of the 
Old Testament. In doing so we are only fol- 
lowing the example of Jesus who set aside what 
was immature in favour of that which was full 
grown. This thought is recognised and ac- 
cepted in the epistle to the Hebrews. The for- 
mer revelation has been superseded by the lat- 
ter which does not simply set it aside but com- 
pletes it. The truth of God is thus progressive, 
from less to more ; it is consistent, in harmony 
with what has gone before; it is imperishable, 
in that the lesser has been absorbed and assimi- 
lated by the greater, even in the sense that the 
child has grown into the man. 

Eecognise this fact of a '^progressive expan- 
sion,'' and you will avoid much confusion of 
thought and inconsistency of spirit. The 
bloody persecutions of the heretics by the 
Church, both Catholic and Protestant, were 
based on the Old Testament law which con- 
demned the disobedient, in the spirit of a tooth 
for a tooth, in tragic f orgetfulness that a better 
day had dawned with the coming of Christ. We 
must not come to this blessed library without 
any thought of Scriptural perspective, as 
though it were a law-book for statutory legisla- 



174 ^^^ Faith and the Fellowship 

tion, and every part of it therefore of equal and 
final authority. Nor must we regard it as a 
diversified collection of proof texts that caa be 
used without discrimination in support of sla- 
very, Mormonism, Christian Science, Theoso- 
phy, or any fantastic creed which ingenuity 
and skill can formulate. It is interesting to 
know that the verse divisions were made by 
Eobert Stephen in 1551 on a horse-back ride 
from Paris to Lyons. This may explain why 
the chapter and verse divisions are often so 
misleading and interrupt the line of thought in 
embarrassing ways. If we regard everything 
in the Bible as sacred, what about the speeches 
of Satan in the drama of Job? ^^All that a 
man hath will he give for his life'' — is that 
true ? It is selfish and utterly false and is con- 
demned by the Christian martyrs of all the cen- 
turies and by those who have followed principle 
rather than profit. The prevalent misquotation 
and misapplication of Scripture is largely re- 
sponsible for the wrong conceptions which pre- 
vail among people as to the value of the Bible. 
^'This is the house of God and this is the gate 
of heaven,'' was first said of the wild stony 
ground of Bethel where Jacob saw in vision the 
ladder erected between earth and heaven. It 
should not then be used exclusively of a Church 
building because it has a larger application to 



The Sacred Writings 175 

every place which is sanctified by the realised 
presence of God, whether it be on the high seas, 
the wild forests, the barren caves, the mountain 
slopes, the godly homes, as well as in stated 
places where persons meet to offer worship to 
God in Christ. 

Think of this as a living book where the 
Divine is interpenetrated by the human. It ulti- 
mately proceeded from God but it came to us 
through men like us with similar passions, 
prejudices, and privations. Eemember this and 
you will get nearer the truth than if you were 
to regard it as a book which fell complete from 
heaven in some mysterious and marvellous 
way. We will then accept those parts which 
appeal to our present needs and let the rest go, 
for they doubtless appeal differently to others. 
In this matter we are surely better in practice 
than in theory. Are not certain portions more 
frequently thumbed and read than other por- 
tions, even of the New Testament? Look at the 
Bible of an intelligent Christian and you will 
find that some pages are as clean as when the 
volume was bought ; but turn to Psalm 23, Isaiah 
40, Matthew 5, Luke 15, John 14, 1 Cor. 13, Rev. 
22, and they are seen to have captured their 
readers because of the poetry of their style, the 
purity of their sentiments, and the sublimity 
of their spiritual optimism. It is not credulity 



176 The Faith and the Fellowship 

but faith which brings us into fellowship with 
God. We cannot then build the fair temple of 
character with the untempered mortar of igno- 
rance and superstition. If we further recog- 
nise that Christ is the luminous centre of the 
book, that all which came before Him was 
preparation, and that all which followed Him 
has been illustration, we shall be delivered from 
the quagmire of perplexity and doubt. 

This is a revelation of God, a communication 
from Him through some of our brothers who 
were living near Him. Their soul was like a 
well-exposed photo negative ; the impression 
was clearer and the expression was accordingly 
lucidly convincing. They were not passive 
when receiving these revelations but unusually 
alert, and their personality is seen in their 
writings. The poetic splendour of Isaiah, the 
pathetic strain of Jeremiah, the breath of the 
open air in Amos, the intense aspirations of the 
psalmists, the passionate impulsiveness of 
Peter, the logical force of Paul, the analogical 
ability of the writer of the epistle to the 
Hebrews, the mystic glow of John — all stand 
out clear and distinct — each making a particu- 
lar contribution towards completing the won- 
derful orb of Divine revelation. They are in- 
spired because they manifest so much of the 
presence of God; and this is a question of de- 



The Sacred Writings 177 

gree, determined by the subject matter on hand 
and the circumstances under which they were 
produced. The test of inspiration is not to be 
made by the arguments of logic but by the ap- 
peals of life ; it is not a question of dogma but 
of experience. It was the God-consciousness of 
these men which so filled them with the Holy 
Spirit, that enabled them to produce thes^ 
eternal writings. And we must have a spiritual 
affinity with them if we would understand and 
appreciate their thought. 

The greatest enemy of the Scriptures is igno- 
rance. This is not a Bible reading age, and 
most people think of it in connection with a few 
stray passages which have often been wrested 
out of the context and made to mean anything 
that prejudice and perversity may desire. The 
Bible is not an authority on science for its con- 
ceptions of the world belong to a pre-scientific 
age; but this fact is immaterial and we recall 
with humiliation the needless confusion in the 
Christian camp when the theory of evolution 
was proclaimed, because it was supposed to 
undermine the first chapter of Genesis and 
therefore the entire Bible. This book, moreover, 
is not an authority on history which is a mod- 
em discipline; its historical allusions must be 
considered in the light thrown by monuments, 
clay tablets, papyri, and other archaeological 



178 The Faith and the Fellowship 

finds. The Bible is however the greatest au- 
thority on ethics and religion, on duty and de- 
votion. As we use our liberty of Christian dis- 
cernment, we will know how to distinguish be- 
tween the things that differ and will understand 
that its teachings must always be tested by the 
touchstone which is Jesus Christ. 

As you turn over its pages, you are im- 
pressed by its variety, versatility and sponta- 
neity. It speaks to every mood of the soul ; it is 
the literary and moral conscience of all ages, 
leading us along the dusty highways and by- 
ways of life towards Him who is the life in- 
deed. What consolation in distress; what in- 
struction in perplexity; what exhortation in 
uncertainty; what inspiration when our zeal is 
flagging and our ardour is burning low ; what a 
companion for the quiet hour, the distracted 
hour, the lonely hour; what an aid to prayer, 
what an incentive to devotion, what an impera- 
tive to service ! This is not the place to speak of 
its influence on art, literature, and civilisation. 
Take it all in all, there is not another book 
like it or equal to it. All the great books which 
have been written received their inspiration 
from it, and those which were written without 
it bear no comparison with it. Let us receive 
it and read it and regulate our lives by its truth 
all our days. 



CHAPTER TWELVE: DECISIVE 
CLAIMS 



' ' This Church of the Spirit is always being built. Its power 
is proportional to the spiritual vitality of the membership, to 
the measui?e of apprehension of divine resources, to the depth 
of insight and grasp of truth, to the prevalence of love and 
brotherhood, to the character of service, which the members 
exhibit. It possesses no other kind of power or authority than 
the power and authority of personal lives formed into a com- 
munity by living correspondence with God, and acting as human 
channels and organs of his life and spirit. Such a church can 
meet new formulations of science and history and social ideals 
with no authoritative and conclusive word of God which auto- 
matically settles the issue. Its only weapons are truth and 
light, and these have to be continually re-discovered and re- 
fashioned to fit the facts which the age has found and verified. 
Its mission is prophetic. It does not dogmatically decide what 
facts must be believed, but it sees and annoimces the spiritual 
significance of the facts that are discovered and verified. '^ 

— Eufus M, Jones: '^ Spiritual Be formers in the 16th 
and 17th Centuries/' page L. 




CHAPTER TWELVE 

DECISIVE CLAIMS 

WE are living at a time when everything 
is put in the crucible and tested with 
scientific impartiality. The halo 
which has surrounded sacred things is not rec- 
ognised until it has demonstrated its right 
thereto. This demand to bring everything into 
the open may be resented in the case of the 
Church because it would seem to be an attempt 
to secularise it. This is not the case for it is 
only an effort to appraise its actual value both 
to the individual and the community. If we 
guard against mere material and commercial 
tests, the results will be for the better and not 
for the worse. So we find with regard to au- 
thority that it is changing its complexion and 
not its character, and when the atmosphere is 
cleared there will not be anarchy but the estab- 
lishment of a more convincing principle of au- 
thority. It will be placed on a more stable basis 
and make its appeal not to fear but to the 
enlightened and enlightening reason. Such 
authority will not seek any shielding but will 

l8l 



182 The Faith and the Fellowship 

fearlessly challenge investigation. It will be 
ready to submit its credentials at a moment's 
notice, confident that wherever it is understood 
it will be enthusiastically appreciated and 
accepted. 

It is reported in the gospels that our Lord 
spoke with authority. He relied on the intrinsic 
truth and validity of His message which He 
had experienced in His own life. He thus ap- 
pealed directly to the human heart and always 
made a profound impression. The religious 
teachers of that day spoke hy authority which 
had been transmitted to them. They appealed 
to the voice of tradition; they relied upon or- 
ganisation; they counted on the cumulative 
appeal of the past to such an extent as to dimin- 
ish the vigorous call of the present. How tame 
and ineffective was this second-hand method 
as compared with the effectually dynamic and 
therefore imperative speech of the great Mas- 
ter. He spoke to the whole of life with dis- 
crimination and set things in their relative 
importance. Here we see the difference be- 
tween priestly professions and prophetic 
power. The prophet of God speaks with assur- 
ance. He has so penetrating a message be- 
cause he stands on the eternal principles of 
truth and righteousness. He is so sure of God 
that he does not hesitate to announce the divine 



Decisive Claims 183 

will and to apply it to the conditions of his own 
times. Is the Church inspired by such a pro- 
phetic unction? Is it governed by the Holy 
Spirit, in the independence of spiritual power, 
or is it influenced by the Zeitgeist of civil, social 
and monetary forces? 

It is confessedly true that the Church pro- 
fesses and purposes to be the teacher of the 
life that is hid with Christ in God and to bear a 
continuous witness to Christ the living Word. 
The final test of the Church's vitality is not its 
ability to make scholars, administrators, theo- 
logians, educators, but to produce saints whose 
character of Christ-likeness is the most con- 
vincing argument for its authority and influ- 
ence in society. We honour and love the 
Church because, as we have already seen, it 
has been the great school of holiness and good- 
ness, of courtesy and chivalry, of truth and pur- 
ity. Even in the Middle Ages when corruption 
was rampant throughout Europe and ignorance 
was resting like a pall on every land, the 
cloisters of the church were the centres of de- 
votion and industry. We think of Bernard of 
Clairvaux and his spiritual passion for souls, 
in the interest of whom he wrote so many eager 
letters ; and then we recall Francis of Assisi so 
benign and gracious and we cannot help feel- 
ing that the Church which encouraged such 



184 The Faith and the Fellowship 

faithful spirits was engaged in a similar work 
in many an obscnre place during this dark pe- 
riod. In the midst of distractions and corrup- 
tions the church has ever appealed to the better 
judgment, the sober calculation, the earnest 
hopes, the noble aspirations, and the Godward 
impulses of the human race. The Church is the 
possessor of the living Word whose voice has 
been heard not often where an ecclesiastical 
aroma has been felt but always where humble 
souls with steadfast gaze and resolute spirit 
have communed with God in Christ. 

The recognised marks of the Church are 
unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. We 
accept this but would interpret the terms in a 
decidedly spiritual sense. Unity is that of the 
Spirit and this is far more fundamental and 
permanent than what is metaphysical or 
creedal; it is also quite consistent with diver- 
sity and variety, but never with what results 
in strife and competition. Holiness is of char- 
acter and not of ceremonial; the underlying 
idea is that of consecration and this is a vital 
experience of devotion to God and His purposes; ' 
which, however, does not secure one against in- 
errancy as to intellectual conceptions nor infal- 
libility in the sense of finality of judgment. 
Catholicity does not mean merely comprehen- 
siveness but ability of adaptation to universal 



Decisive Claims 185 

conditions, of satisfying the deepest needs of 
all classes, and of being at home in any clime 
or land. This elasticity is, however, healthily 
balanced by the other mark of apostolicity 
which is harmony with the essential spirit and 
teaching of the apostles, as we find it reflected 
in the New Testament. These are all prac- 
tical tests and we can easily understand why 
more people have been impressed by the prac- 
tice of the Christian life than have been by 
proofs from academic Christian scholarship 
which occupy a second place, not the first. 

It has been well said that the seat of author- 
ity is not the enlightened conscience but the 
redeemed conscience, which has experienced the 
truth and thrill of the Cross and is therefore 
not motived by selfish irresponsibility but by a 
spirit which has known the discipline of sacri- 
fice. The soul has been released from an ex- 
ternal law but it has come under the more ex- 
acting law of love, which knows no bounds of 
time, place or effort. Even apostolic authority 
such as was exercised by Paul was not that of a 
lord over God's heritage in the manner of later 
ecclesiastics, but rather that of a loving father 
speaking to his children in a tone of spiritual 
persuasiveness. It was not a title which en- 
forced submission but a credential which se- 
cured acceptance and obedience. In many 



l86 The Faith and the Fellowship 

departments of life we must be satisfied with 
second-hand knowledge. The scientist explores 
the realms of nature and brings ns his con- 
clusions. The astronomer, the biologist, the 
inventor, the traveller, all return with their 
results and their word is established because it 
is based on duly verified data and not on un- 
warrantable assumptions and hypotheses. The 
religious expert is not necessarily the theo- 
logian but the saint who speaks with such im- 
pressiveness because of an inner experience of 
the will of God. In every case expert authority 
must justify itself by a convincing appeal. In 
the case of moral and religious authority the 
appeal is made to the reason, the emotions, the 
conscience and the will. Where this is done 
it is hardly necessary to appeal to the argu- 
ment of antiquity. 

Eeligious authority exercises influence only 
as it meets the genuine and heart-felt needs of 
the day. It will further be tolerated only as it 
honestly faces present demands and with cour- 
ageous spirit considers those of to-morrow. It 
is not the Church which makes pompous pre- 
tensions to sanctity but the Church which is in 
the world to minister like its Master, whose 
voice will be heard and whose claims will be 
allowed. What then is the basis of sutfrage 
and support? It is not the organisation, how- 



Decisive Claims 187 

ever well established; it is not the priesthood, 
set apart by ceremonial rites and ordinances; 
it is not the building, however beautiful in ar- 
chitectural adornment ; nor is it the aflfluent cir- 
cumstances, social and financial, however desir- 
able and helpful these may be. They are all 
subordinate considerations. What constitutes 
the Church and gives it a unique distinction is 
the realised presence of Jesus Christ and the 
hearty fellowship of His disciples. Such a 
fruitful experience has been possible in the 
small chapel no less than in the stately cathe- 
dral. It is the privilege of poor and obscure per- 
sons as well as of those whose names are her- 
alded far and wide. How often the church of 
Christ has been found in catacombs and moun- 
tain fastnesses, in forests, barns, humble 
homes, and rude structures, where men and 
women, weighed down by the cares of life, have 
offered worship to God in Christ and have en- 
joyed His presence which dispelled their gloom 
and brought into their lives the light of ever- 
lasting joy. Truly Christ is central in the faith 
and worship of the church. He is the centre of 
light, radiating throughout this dark world ; He 
is the source of life, resurrecting those who are 
dead in sin and evil; He is the heart of love, 
regenerating the souls of men so that a new 
passion seizes them and they are led out into 



1 88 The Faith and the Fellowship 

larger ways of service. Christ therefore is the 
supreme moral and spiritual authority who has 
inspired a new ideal of life which cannot be 
realised except by His aid. So long then as He 
is recognised and worshipped as the living 
Lord, the church need never fear that it will 
meet with disaster. 

There are different conceptions of the church : 
from which we can conclude what is essential 
to authority: (I) The Eoman Catholic at first 
thought of the church as an aristocratic repub- 
lic governed by bishops ; then the idea prevailed 
of it as a constitutional monarchy with the 
pope at the head; but since 1870, when the 
dogma of papal infallibility was pronounced, 
the church has been regarded as an absolute 
monarchy, and always and exclusively to be 
identified with the ecclesiastical organisation. 
The modernist movement is a sign that many 
within the borders of the Eoman Church are 
seeking the privilege of freedom of discussion 
in place of unquestioning submission to the 
Roman curia. (H) The Anglican and Prot- 
estant Episcopal Churches lay claim to the his- 
toric episcopate, which holds the seat of author- 
ity. The theory of apostolic succession gives 
final power to the bishops, who, it is main- 
tained, received it in a direct line without inter- 
ruption from the apostles. Such a view holds 



Decisive Claims 189 

to a mechanical theory of spiritual inspiration 
and fails to recognise that the grounds of epis-. 
copal continuity are historically untenable. 
(Ill) The essence of the Protestant view con- 
sists of the unity in Jesus Christ and the privi- 
lege by divine grace of the spiritual priesthood 
of all believers. Such a conception provides for 
changes in the forms of church polity which 
need not be the same in every age nor in every 
land in the same age. What it shall be must 
be determined by the necessities of the people. 
The church does not exist to perpetuate sys- 
tems of organisation but to proclaim the pos- 
sibilities of sanctification of the entire person- 
ality through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and the 
grace of the indwelling Holy Spirit. 

The particular mission of the church is to 
make real the rule of God in the world, and to 
make righteous the men and women therein by 
imparting rehgion as a life of love, peace, joy 
and blessedness. Let us briefly note some of 
the aspects of this functioning. (1) It sets 
forth Christianity as the religion which exer- 
cises spiritual and dynamic authority, able to 
meet the deep needs of men and to produce a 
gracious and noble type of character. (2) The 
church has the credit of developing personal- 
ity to higher stages of spiritual perfection, and 
in doing so for a much larger company of men 



190 The Faith and the Fellowship 

and women, than any other institution. In this 
connection we think not only of the far-famed 
leaders like Paul, Origen, Augustine, Wycliffe, 
Luther, Calvin, Cromwell, Wesley, Asbury, Liv- 
ingstone, William Booth, Spurgeon. We also 
consider the vast array of witnesses whom no 
man can number, who have been faithful in 
their several callings, not only in Christendom, 
but also on the mission field where the native 
Christians have let their light shine to the glory 
of the Eedeemer. (3) The church has shown 
remarkable skill in adaptability and flexibility ; 
and in spite of certain obscurantists who have 
tried to stay the clock of progress, the gospel 
has been so proclaimed as to demonstrate its 
concern in the divers interests of the world. 
(4) We cannot deal lightly with the Christian 
life and activity of over nineteen centuries. 
The church has well been called ^^the treasure 
house of spiritual discoveries, experiences, en- 
deavours, victories.^' It is this testimony of 
saintly souls, ^^ sounding together,'^ which has 
meant more than any spectacular appeal, and 
which convinces because it answers to what is 
noblest and best within us. 

^^My kingdom is not of this world.'' How 
strange these words sound in the light of his- 
tory! The church of the fourth century en- 
gaged in a desperate struggle to secure control 



Decisive Claims 191 

of the world-empires, grievously deluded that 
it had business with temporalities. A compro- 
mise was thus effected which not only secular- 
ised the church but introduced elements of spir- 
itual hazard into it from which it has not yet 
been able to rid itself. The Protestant Eefor- 
mation upset the traditional understanding of 
ecclesiastical authority but, as often happens 
with protests, the features of negation were 
over-conspicuous. While emphasis was laid on 
the validity of the Christian consciousness as 
against ecclesiastical dogmatism, this concep- 
tion of liberty was not consistently thought out, 
with the unfortunate result that bibliolatry took 
the place of ecclesiolatry. This anticlimax 
happened when the glowing experience of 
Christ began to weaken and decay, and when 
many felt the need for some external authority 
to offset Eomanism. The freedom enjoyed by 
Luther and Calvin in interpreting the Scrip- 
tures was made impossible by Protestant scho- 
lasticism. Protests were made against this ex- 
ternalising of religion because it weakened the 
liberty of conscience and the vigour of religious 
conviction. These consistent Protestants were, 
however, in the minority, and a static view of 
revelation was maintained as though God had 
spoken to the fathers but had no communication 
for the sons. Such a theory is clearly against 



192 The Faith and the Fellowship 

the facts as we recall how the promise of Christ 
has been fulfilled where believers have met in 
His name. They have been enabled to exercise 
power in proportion as they gave themselves to 
prayer, and practised sacrifice and discharged 
their obligations as a duty of delight and an 
acceptable privilege. 

The authority of the church, then, is not 
based on traditionalism, venerable as that may 
be ; nor on ecclesiasticism, complicated as is its 
methods of argumentation • nor on intellectual- 
ism, indispensable as are its services; nor on 
denominationalism, valid as its influence has 
been at different epochs in the life of the 
church. These approaches to the modern mind 
are blocked and yet spiritual authority is in- 
evitable. We may turn it aside or even turn 
it away but it will insist on being heard. The 
experience of the soul which has trusted in 
Christ and has found Him to be a true and 
efficient Saviour is a fact with which scientist, 
psychologist and historian must reckon. When 
men and women, sane in every walk of life, and 
whose judgment is accepted in business trans- 
actions, speak concerning Christ, we shall be 
irrational if we try to explain away their testi- 
mony of indebtedness to Him, as due to morbid 
introspection, or abnormal hysteria, or fantas- 
tic vagaries of the imagination. Let the church 



Decisive Claims 193 

insist on attending to its own business whicli, 
first, last and all the time, is to lead people to 
God through Christ and to establish them in 
Christlike character. Thus only will it speak 
with authority to a distracted generation like 
the present which needs most of all to get in 
touch with God. The future of Christianity is 
with that church which can speak with spiritual 
assurance and enable people to experience the 
reality of God, to enjoy the companionship of 
Christ, and to practise the virtues and graces 
of the Gospel, in the power of the Divine Spirit. 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ACCEPT- 
ABLE CREDENTIALS 



i 



'*In our day the Christian congregation suffers from much 
depreciation, due to a conspiracy of causes, both within and 
without the Church, which it is not now necessary to detail. In 
face of them the recollection may be useful of what oppor- 
tunities and what inspirations some of the greatest men and 
women have found in the instrument which we administer. Of 
no other routine in social life may we more justly say that 
princes digged this well, that the nobles of the people delved 
it with the scepter and with their staves. The influence of the 
Christian congregation upon history, the contribution of the 
parish to the world, is a subject which is waiting for a his- 
torian. He will lay bare a thousand almost forgotten wells, 
which from all the centuries still feed some of the strongest 
currents of human life. Many types of character; much that 
is imperishable in literature and art; much that has become 
world-wide in education and the organisation of charity, have 
found their origins in congregational life.'' 

— George Adam Smith: ^'The Forgiveness of Sins and 
Other Sermons/' page 231. 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

ACCEPTABLE CREDENTIALS 

THE church must justify its place in soci- 
ety by showing that it is doing a work 
which is not possible for any other insti- 
tution. If it has been the greatest force in the 
redemption of society in former centuries, can 
it continue that particular function to-day? If 
it has appealed convincingly to the intellect of 
former times and has exercised authority over 
the life because of its ability to satisfy the 
deepest needs of man, does it still have power 
to do this? These and similar questions have 
an answer not only in the pages of Church his- 
tory, but also in the contemporary annals of 
the modern church. We must acknowledge that 
the church has often yielded to the temptation 
to go outside of its own province and interfere 
with the business of other organisations, under 
the mistaken impression that it was thus ren- 
dering service to God and man. Hildebrand's 
vision of a theocratic State in the eleventh cen- 
tury has had more to do with diverting the 
energies of the church into alien channels than 

197 



198 The Faith and the Fellowship 

almost any other programme. The leaders of 
the church have always been slow to learn the 
truth that concentration is the secret of effec- 
tiveness, and so in spreading their efforts over 
a wide area they have done many things but 
none too well. 

How often does it happen that the preacher 
is called upon to discourse on timely topics of 
the day? They certainly have a bearing on the 
welfare of humanity, like asylums for the fee- 
ble-minded, hospitals for the crippled, sani- 
tariums for the cure of tuberculosis, campaigns 
against white slavery, child labour, and every 
other form of social distress. Such pulpit ap- 
peals must of necessity be based on second-hand 
information, often of a biassed character; and 
where such methods are encouraged a stigma 
will rest on the pulpit, and its powers of per- 
suasion will become weakened. The supreme 
business of the pulpit is to enable us to under- 
stand the glorious revelation of Jesus Christ, 
which unfolds the stimulating truths of the 
Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man, 
and the Saviourhood of Jesus. Where all this is 
comprehensively interpreted and applied in the 
light of the pressing needs of people, the results 
will make for the building up of the manhood, 
the womanhood, and the childhood of the entire 



Acceptable Credentials 199 

race, in every department of industrial, social, 
and humanitarian activity. 

When we ask what is the platform of the 
church we are at once confronted by the ques- 
tion of the creeds. It is through them that the 
church has made confession to the world of its 
faith, hope and purpose. There are some who 
say that the Bible is their creed, but this is a 
pious generalisation. The Bible is a record of 
the progressive revelation of God and of the 
religious experience of those to whom it came 
through many forms and fashions. It is fur- 
thermore an interpretation of both the revela- 
tion and the experience. Its preciousness 
therefore is of the greatest worth. All Chris- 
tians look upon the Bible as their charter but 
how widely they disagree in their understand- 
ing of it. Their creeds are based on the teach- 
ing of the Bible, and they have validity only 
as they are in harmony with the full scope of 
the thought and spirit of the Bible. But where 
Protestanism gives liberty of interpretation in 
the freedom of the Spirit, each age is under 
obligation to formulate its own creeds, in ac- 
cordance with its own conceptions of Christian 
truth and practice. The historic creeds of 
Christendom reflect the thought and life of the 
periods during which they were formulated. 
The Apostles' creed received its name not be- 



200 The Faith and the Fellowship 

cause of apostolic authorship but because it set 
forth a series of propositions which were in 
accord with the teachings of the apostles. In 
its present form it dates from the year 700 
A. D. or thereabouts. It is the lineal descend- 
ant of the old Roman Symbol which is gener- 
ally conceded to date from the latter part of 
the second century and was originally used by 
candidates for baptism. Not only on this ac- 
count but also because of its practical drift, the 
Apostles' creed is used more largely by all 
branches of the church than any of the other 
symbols. The Nicene creed is associated with 
the Council of Nicea, 325, and bears marks of 
the intense controversy of that period concern- 
ing the person of Christ. The central truth 
which it emphasises is the Incarnation of 
Christ, *^Who for us men and for our salvation 
came down from heaven, and was incarnate by 
the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was 
made man.'' The Athanasian creed is even 
more distinctively metaphysical; it was con- 
ceived in a purely dogmatic spirit, in which' 
moral and spiritual issues received subordinate 
consideration. It further reflects very con- 
spicuously the bitter controversies of the fourth 
and fifth centuries when Athanasius and Arius 
were the leaders of the respective parties. 
These three creeds are among the accepted 



Acceptable Credentials 201 

standards of all branches of the Christian 
Church. But it is evident to any thoughtful stu- 
dent of these venerated symbols that they do 
not contain much which the church was called 
upon to emphasise in later centuries, particu- 
larly since the Eeformation. Nothing is said 
about the central evangelical truth that the 
sinner is justified by faith in the living Christ. 
No provision is made for the missionary obli- 
gations of the church, nor for the social task of 
Christianity, nor for other issues which modern 
demands and necessities have thrust upon our 
attention. We nevertheless use the Apostles^ 
creed in our churches but it is with the under- 
standing that we read into its clauses the later 
findings of Christian scholarship and testi- 
mony, which are in perfect consistency with the 
mind and spirit of the early church. When we 
hear so much about Christian union and Chris- 
tian unity, it is well to remember that such a 
desirable condition can be possible only as we 
hold to a more simplified creed which will em- 
phasise the experimental aspects of the Chris- 
tian life and the distinctive spirit of Christian- 
ity which is love for God and man in the name 
of Jesus Christ. For after all, as it was well 
put, it is not wliat we believe so much as in 
whom we believe which is the question of the 
greatest moment. Let us further remind our- 



202 The Faith and the Fellowship 

selves that if former ages speak to us through 
their creeds, confessions, and even controver- 
sies, it is both rational and logical that we bear 
our own responsibility to think and act that 
later generations may receive from us a mes- 
sage of guidance which will make increasingly 
clear and attractive the wonderful power of 
the evangel of redemption to cope with and 
meet the needs of the whole world. 

The church must of necessity be conservative. 
It will hardly do to accept promptly every 
panacea of reform, although its advocates may 
be most ardent and sincere. There are several 
reasons for this attitude of hesitation in the 
presence of change. One is the time-serving 
spirit of the fear of consequences, another is the 
fact of being unduly wedded to the past under 
the prevailing notion that the glory of the for- 
mer house is greater than that of the latter. 
Yet another reason is that the church has un- 
consciously allowed the dead hand of the world 
to rest upon it, and the spiritual paralysis has 
been a serious blight, as is seen in lands where 
State-endowed churches exist. A desire to con- 
serve what is best in the rich legacies of the 
Christian centuries has not always been accom- 
panied by a willingness to consider advances 
beyond established positions. And what makes 
the situation so dismal is the fact that the party 



Acceptable Credentials 203 

of progress and expansion has frequently been 
separated from the party of caution by mutual 
misunderstandings. One of the unfortunate 
phases in the history of theological controversy 
was the fact that while the ecclesiastics were 
gaining dogmatic victories for the church, there 
was a degeneration in the moral practice of 
the church members. Doctrines were being es- 
tablished at the expense of deeds of Christian 
rectitude and devotion. Dean Henson quotes 
with approval the following from Gregory 
Nazianzen of the fourth century: ^^If I must 
write the truth, I am disposed to avoid every 
assembly of bishops: for of no synod have I 
seen a profitable end, but rather an addition 
to than a diminution of evils; for the love of 
strife and the thirst for superiority are beyond 
the power of words to express. '^ * This is no 
exaggeration, for it is descriptive of conditions 
in every century. Indeed it is one of the chronic 
diseases of ecclesiasticism ; and if we note the 
fact in this place it is to utter a word of warn- 
ing that we guard ourselves against what has 
insidiously entered in and weakened the spirit- 
ual vitality of the church. 

This, however, is the dark side of the picture 
and it has a depressing effect. An impartial 
survey calls for the consideration of the 

* * * Moral Discipline in the Christian Church, ' ' page 13$, 



204 The Faith and the Fellowship 

brighter aspects of church history. There are 
spots in the sun but we do not forget to be glad 
for the heat and health which this central lumi- 
nary confers on the world. In spite of many 
lapses and errors the church has been the great 
agent through which the religion of Christ has 
discharged its redemptive mission in every cen- 
tury and land. It may therefore be regarded 
as the salt of society, working for the preven- 
tion of evils and for deHverance from them. 
It is also the light of the world ; when corrup- 
tion was deadly and social bitterness was rife 
and selfishness in myriad forms was like a deso- 
lating scourge, the leavening influence of the 
church was at work. Souls athirst for God 
found refreshment in the cloisters of the 
church; those who were perplexed by the de- 
feats and sorrows of life obtained succour for 
their spirits in the atmosphere of devotion in 
the church. Tasks which were laid down in 
sheer despair were resumed by the courage re- 
ceived from the spiritual guides of the church. 
In what other society has there been so large a 
company of men and women, whose lives have 
been distinguished by saintly devotion and con- 
secrated tenderness and eager sympathy and 
moral uplift and spiritual nobleness? A great 
deal more should have been done, but let us not 
permit our criticism to deal unjustly with that 



Acceptable Credentials 205 

institution whicli of all others has stood for the 
supreme worth of spiritual riches. 

While creeds are of value as summarised ex- 
pressions of the Christian faith they must not 
be regarded as final. The course of history has 
proven repeatedly that more light and truth 
have shone upon the world from the one Source 
of everlasting Light. All this did not contra- 
dict the conclusions of the creeds but only made 
it evident that they need enrichment by the ad- 
dition of such clauses as will make Christianity 
more vitalisingly competent for the present 
crisis. If, however, the creeds are to be re- 
garded as authoritative declarations they must 
be endorsed by practical Christian living. This 
test has not failed the Church. Eefer to a vol- 
ume like ^^Gesta Christi," by C. Loring Brace, 
and you have a most inspiring recital of the 
many-sided benefits which have been imparted 
by Christianity in every age and land. Such 
achievements constitute, as we have seen in 
Chapter VII, the most impregnable argument 
for the gracious versatility of the Evangel to 
supply the needs of all people that on earth do 
dwell. When we speak of Christianity we mean 
the church, without which it could never have 
been propagated throughout the world. What 
Christ expected His church to be it has par- 
tially become, in spite of errors, discords and 



2o6 The Faith and the Fellowship 

reverses. Many volumes have been written to 
chronicle its notable contributions to the wel- 
fare of the race, so that it is not possible to 
summarise the activities of nigh twenty cen- 
turies in a brief paragraph. We would, how- 
ever, say to the enquirer after positive proofs, 
to look around ; but lest it be a superficial sur- 
vey we would add that he should look beneath 
and behind the outspread panorama, and re- 
member that all the good came through the 
church of the living Christ. The church has 
assuredly been the mother of charities and 
philanthropies ; it has given the impetus to hu- 
mane legislation, and popular education; its 
leaders have been among the reformers of 
abuses, who have waged uncompromising war 
against social and industrial iniquities, who 
have worked for the uplift of the peoples in the 
habitations of cruelty at home and on the mis- 
sion field, and who have laboured incessantly 
and resolutely that more people may have a fair 
share of the ^ leisure and treasure and pleasure 
of life.'' When the church failed to secure 
beneficent results it was ^^not by being Chris- 
tian overmuch, but by failing to be Christian.'''* 
The original impulses and motives which led 
men and women to consecrate themselves to 

* * * Erasmus and Other Essays, ' ' by Marcus Dods, D.D., 
page 311. 



Acceptable Credentials 207 

Christ need to be constantly revived and 
strengthened. There never comes a time when 
the Christian can say that enough has been 
done and that he may rest on past work. The 
Christian soldier is never off guard and under 
no circumstances can he lower his standards or 
take for granted that all is well while he is 
indolent or negligent. It was when the church 
assumed too much and when it presumed to dic- 
tate after the fashion of worldly conquerors 
that it lost spiritual power. It is needless to 
say that without sacrificial devotion, the glory 
of the church will cease to captivate the 
heart and will of the people. When the pope 
showed St. Thomas the riches of the Vatican 
he said, ^^No more can the church say silver 
and gold have I none," to which the saint and 
scholar answered: ^^ Neither can it any more 
say, ' rise up and walk. ' ' ' The influence of the 
church is characteristically spiritual, and where 
this is not seen and shown the words addressed 
to the church in Sardis are in place: ^^Thou 
hast a name that thou livest, and thou art 
dead." The presence of obscure companies of 
believers outside the organised church has al- 
ways been a protest that the church has not 
supplied the bread of life to eager spirits who 
have counted that to be far more precious than 
anything which the world had to offer. It will 



2o8 The Faith and the Fellowship 

not do to say that some of these ^^come-outers'^ 
were fanatical. Grant it and yet the fact re- 
mains that the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the 
Eanters, the Quakers, and many other devout 
souls endured persecution rather than sacrifice 
their convictions of the truth in Christ Jesus, 
as they understood it. 

We think of the Apostolic age as the period 
when the high water mark of spiritual excel- 
lence was reached. And yet the period which 
immediately followed it showed a marked spir- 
itual decadence. It was as though the pendu- 
lum had swung to the other extreme. One big 
reason for this was that the Christians were 
resting on the laurels won by their predecessors 
and were not careful to practise the presence 
of God and to maintain fellowship with Christ 
in the communion of the Holy Spirit. Numer- 
ical and financial tests are not always con- 
clusive. If we are making less of personal con- 
version and Christian assurance and the wit- 
ness of the Spirit and the growth in holiness, 
we are feeding on chaff. If we are less inter- 
ested in the Bible as a book of spiritual culture, 
and fail in the practice of prayer as a means of 
grace for the accomplishment of our responsi- 
bilities, if we are not keen in testimony as an 
opportunity for Christian confession, and if we 
do not engage in personal work to win souls for 



Acceptable Credentials 209 

Christ, then, whatever else we may have gained, 
we have lost that which is the peculiar glory of 
the Church of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. We must then seek to Christianise the 
church and pray earnestly and fervently, clam- 
ouring for a speedy revival of the fundamental 
and essential experience which will restore unto 
us the joys of salvation. The grape-vines which 
are pruned in the early Spring bear luscious 
fruit in the Fall. The church has that which 
everybody needs but these treasures of grace 
can be made accessible and available only as 
the members have a quickening sense of their 
obligations as the representatives of Christ. 
In the new and better day which is dawning 
there will be greater and not less demand for 
the service of the church. Its great business 
will be to interpret the mind of God, and to ex- 
pound the truth of a world-wide fraternity, and 
to offer the grace of the Saviour Christ which 
shall empower all men in their every inter- 
course to act ^'soberly and righteously and 
godly" for the greater glory of God in the 
larger welfare of men. This can be assuredly 
done as we are possessed with the passion of 
the Cross, and are inspired by the purity of the 
Spirit, and have the experience of the forgive- 
ness and peace of Christ. 



CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE 
LARGER VISION 



''In the Churcli we have men massed together in one cor- 
poration and brotherhood for the worship of the eternal God; 
and even the disinterested observer will surely see gathered 
there the most saintly and the most consecrated lives; he will 
discern the spirit it breathes, the character it fashions, the hope 
it entertains for men, the appeal it makes to all to enter into 
the fellowship of the higher life, and thus hasten the coming 
of the kingdom of God. It bears witness to a world that is 
both present and unseen, and into which every one can enter 
now, and to spiritual ends which the lowliest can further. If 
Christian men could dwell together in unity, thinking of what is 
common to them in the faith and not of what divides them, 
finding their vocation and their delight in propagating the 
spirit of their Master, then the Church would impose itself 
upon the mind as the nation does, becoming a standard of con- 
duct, a check on every evil, and a stimulus to a wider good. ' ' 

— George Steven: '^The Psychology of the Christian 
Soul/' page 225. 



CHAPTER FOUETEEN 

THE LAEGER VISION 

IF the presence of the church in any com- 
munity is a healthy sign, the presence of 
many church organisations, far in excess of 
the actual needs of the people and taxing their 
ability for support, is not a healthy sign. It 
has often happened that in an attempt to jus- 
tify its right to exist, one denomination has im- 
pugned the claims and privileges of another. It 
has even gone to the length of checkmating the 
other's influence under the delusion that it may 
thereby increase its own membership. All this 
implies competition and rivalry in ungracious 
ways, with misrepresentation and vilification of 
each other's positions and a general weakening 
of the testimony of the church to the spiritual 
enrichment in Christ and the strengthening of 
character, both of the individual and of society. 
On the other hand where the religious forces of 
a community can be united it is possible to 
present a more aggressive and impressive front, 
with a view to fighting the evil in the world and 
converting men from the error of their ways 

213 



214 The Faith and the Fellowship 

and establishing the Kingdom of truth, right- 
eousness and fraternity, in the name of the 
common Master and Lord. 

The churches have reached the stage of pass- 
ing complimentary resolutions in honour of 
each other. This is a noteworthy advance, for 
the spirit of courtesy is much to be desired in 
any attempt at mutual understanding. As we 
felicitate each other, we shall also facilitate the 
day of Christian blessedness when all shall be 
one in Christ our Lord. In this connection we 
cannot improve on the large principle of John 
Wesley, who was a great churchman and a 
greater Christian: ^^In essentials unity, in non- 
essentials liberty, in all things charity.'^ A 
splendid representative of American Christian- 
ity, George W. Pepper, in his recent Yale Lec- 
tures, ^^A Voice from the Crowd,'' said: ^^The 
principal obstacle in the path of unity is a per- 
verse refusal to recognise differences of appre- 
hension as facts to be reckoned with rather than 
as follies to be condemned'' (page 166). Com- 
ing from a layman of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, it is a striking commentary on Article 
XIX of the Articles of Religion of his own com- 
munion. The second paragraph thereof reads : 
^^As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and 
Antioch have erred ; so also the Church of Rome 
hath erred, not only in their living and manner 



The Larger Vision 215 

of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.'' 
This is the sort of utterance which claims for 
its promulgators immunity from error ; and yet 
the history of the Episcopal Church has been 
marked by corruptions no less serious than 
those found in the churches which this article 
condemns in the ex cathedra spirit. It also has 
erred, and that very grievously, in its obstinate 
refusal to recognise a large catholicity which 
comprehends all who hold the common faith in 
Christ, who enjoy the common experience of 
redemption, and who confess allegiance to the 
one and sole Saviour of the world. 

The sudden and violent reversal of the hands 
of the clock of progress is one of the tragedies 
of history. The noble ecumenical gathering of 
Christian churches in Edinburgh in 1910, in the 
interests of missionary work throughout the 
world, was a notable contribution towards 
Christian unity. It seemed to many that the 
era of better things had dawned for Christian- 
ity. There were, however, dissenting voices. 
But how insistent was the opposition to unity 
became known later, and that from an unlooked 
for quarter. The occasion was a missionary 
conference at Kikuyu, British East Africa, on 
June 7, 1913. Those who participated in this 
fraternal gathering were Episcopalians, Pres- 
byterians, Methodists, Quakers, Baptists, and 



2i6 The Faith and the Fellowship 

Lutherans. They were confronted by a militant 
Mohammedanism and had come together to de- 
vise ways by which they might establish the 
Cross where the Crescent was in control. The 
deliberations were concluded by the celebration 
of the Lord's Supper in the Scotch Presbyte- 
rian Church. It was administered by the two 
Anglican bishops. This exhibition of Christian 
unity was violently resented by the High 
Church bishop of Zanzibar who threw a bomb 
into the camp. His contention was that non- 
episcopal churches are '^bodies whose very 
existence is hostile to Christ's Holy Church.'' 
Had not the European war diverted the atten- 
tion of Christians from this ecclesiastical issue, 
the course of disruption might have been seri- 
ous. It is bound to make its appearance soon, 
but we fervently hope that the sacramentalists 
and ceremonialists will come to a better under- 
standing of what is vitally essential in Christian 
faith and fellowship.* 

Sectarianism is practically a dead issue ex- 
cept among its self -constituted custodians of 
the High Church party, who insist that the 
whole truth is contained within their little seg- 
ment of the large circle of God's grace. Al- 

*Cf. *'Kikuyu,'' by Dean Henson, Hihhert Journal, April, 
1914, page 481; '^ Unity and Missions, '' by Arthur J. Brown, 
page 189 ff. 



The Larger Vision 217 

though it is humiliating to confess, it must 
nevertheless be acknowledged that it is a social 
barrier which is keeping denominations from 
co-operating more heartily with each other. In 
so far as this is the case, the modern church 
has departed from the central standards of 
Christ and the New Testament. The qualifica- 
tions for membership and service in the church 
are not primarily intellectual, as though it were 
an organisation for scholars; nor are they so- 
cial, as though it were a select club ; nor again 
financial, as if it were a corporation; nor na- 
tionalistic, as though it belonged to a particular 
country; nor ecclesiastical, as though the insti- 
tution were the big consideration; nor even 
dogmatic, as if the last word were contained in 
the creeds. The absolutely first and last condi- 
tion is spiritual, and it has to do with character 
which bears a likeness to Christ, to whom the 
soul is related by the loyalty of love and devo- 
tion. Where this supreme test is passed, all 
other differences can not only be tolerated but 
also respected. This is the basis of unity which 
must be repeatedly emphasised; ^^not a unity 
of the legalist which will cramp and stifle, but 
a unity of the Free Spirit of God which will 
bring men the love and strength of one another, 
with a tolerance of all human saintliness what- 



2i8 The Faith and the Fellowship 

ever its form, and a concentration upon the 
essentials.'' * 

That which is essential to Christianity we 
have already seen in previous chapters. What 
we are concerned with in the present study is 
to note some of the factors which are subversive 
of unity and also those encouraging movements 
which are manifestly inspired by the divine 
Spirit. Let us take a hurried glance at the 
past. The early Christians were impelled by 
the eager constraint of Christ to spread the 
Gospel of redemption. A great deal of the 
missionary work was done by laymen and what 
they accomplished received the approval of the 
apostles, as in the case of Antioch (Acts 11. 
19-26). The churches which were established 
under these circumstances were independent 
units and yet they were related to each other 
and to the mother church at Jerusalem by the 
uniting bonds of the gladsome experience of 
Christ's salvation. They were thus mutually 
helpful to each other. The churches of Mace- 
donia, for instance, sent contributions in money 
to the poor Christians in Jerusalem, and they 
in turn received instruction how to ^^ contend 
earnestly for the faith which was once for all 
delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). It will take 

* ''The Light Within. A Study of the Holy Spirit/' by C. 
L, Slattery^ D.D., page 235. 



The Larger Vision 219 

us too far afield to go into the controversies of 
the Apostolic Church, in which Paul was the 
champion of Christian liberty against the pro- 
vincialists who advocated ceremonial conformity 
in the interests of ecclesiastical uniformity. They 
were then defeated and Christianity was re- 
leased for a work of world-wide expansion. 
And yet the representatives of these men have 
appeared all through the history of the church 
and have unwittingly done much to neutralise 
its influence. A modern exponent of this melan- 
choly position is Bishop Gore of Oxford, who 
early in his brilliant career espoused the cause 
of Christian progress and himself edited a vol- 
ume of essays entitled *^Lux Mundi.'' And yet 
he wrote with reference to the fraternal fellow- 
ship at Kikuyu: ^^I feel quite sure that to the 
great mass of High Churchmen such an open 
Communion seems to involve principles so to- 
tally subversive of Catholic order and doctrine 
as to be strictly intolerable, in the sense that 
they could not continue in a fellowship which 
required of them to tolerate the recurrence of 
such incidents." What is really intolerable is 
the chronic recurrence of this militant ecclesi- 
asticism which makes more of ritual than of 
righteousness, of ceremonial than of character^ 
and is so obsessed by a theory that it fails to 



220 The Faith and the Fellowship 

deal justly with facts which cannot be squared 
therewith. 

There are, however, more hopeful signs and 
evidences that the churches are working for the 
coming of a Christian catholicity, when each 
and every denomination will think and act in 
terms of the entire church of Christ, and do so 
without violating loyalty to the distinctive con- 
victions of each. It is a great step in advance 
when the churches recognise that co-operation 
of some kind is necessary in the presence of the 
titanic evils which menace society. Another in- 
teresting indication is the attempt to under- 
stand each other's respective positions. It 
means much when representatives of the 
churches can come together under the auspices 
of the World Conference on Faith and Order, at 
several sessions, since its very timely organi- 
zation, to discuss questions relating to the 
Church, the Sacraments, the Ministry. A simi- 
lar gathering was held in England composed 
of representatives of the Established and the 
Free Churches, who issued an interim report 
in February, 1916, setting forth their agree- 
ments and differences, and looking towards a 
settlement which will conserve the interests of 
all and thus advance the cause of Christ. A 
closer co-operation between the churches has 
been frequently seen on the mission field. This 



The Larger Vision 221 

has been a marked feature of missionary work 
all through the centuries. Just as the church 
at Antioch took the initiative in the forward 
movements of the Primitive Church, so the 
church on the mission field, occupying the cir- 
cumference of activities and less bound by tra- 
ditional customs, has produced results towards 
Christian union which have put to the blush 
what has been done in this direction by the 
churches at home. As a matter of fact, the 
World Missionary Conference was made pos- 
sible by the missionaries, who not only made 
some of the most telling addresses at its ses- 
sions, but also gave the cue to the leaders of 
the home churches, in enlarging their vision of 
a redeemed humanity and in emphasising what 
is most distinctive of the Faith in Christ. The 
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 
America, and The National Council of Evangel- 
ical Free Churches in Great Britain, are also 
attempts in the right direction. They are all 
healthy indications that the time has come for 
reinterpretation, readjustment, restatement 
and a spiritual rapprochement, in the name of 
the common Saviour of us all. 

We are ready to acknowledge that the sev- 
eral denominations came into existence in pro- 
test against the abuse of power and in disap- 
proval of the corruptions in the church, owing 



222 The Faith and the Fellowship 

to the spread of the spirit of worldiness. It 
was further caused by a desire to emphasise a 
particular truth or experience, as is seen in 
the very names of some of these denominations. 
Like the Protestant Eeformation, they were re- 
actions against the spiritual deadness and low 
moral tone of the established churches. In the 
United States these sects arose partly in pro- 
test against the existing churches which were 
not discharging their mission and partly to give 
expression to some abnormal religious idea. 
"When the causes of dissatisfaction disappeared, 
the dissenting churches had gone too far in 
their organisations to call a halt and to return 
to the fold which they had renounced. The 
question of reunion is therefore not so easy 
as may seem to be from a superficial view. 
Men, buildings, endowments, have to be consid- 
ered. There must be a willingness to practise 
sacrifice on a large scale for the sake of the 
cause. This implies a spirit of enthusiasm which 
must be kindled at Calvary, if it is to be profit- 
ably effectual. With it must also go the con- 
viction of the urgent need of the world for 
Christ and of the spiritual waste of duplicating 
effort for the sake of maintaining an institution 
and not of redeeming society. The new psy- 
chology is teaching us that sufficient justice has 
not been done to the place of the will. We have 



The Larger Vision 223 

appealed to the emotions and to the intellect 
to incite belief, but we have failed to recognise 
that belief is very much a question of the will. 
Present all the facts and arguments that can 
be mustered, and let it be done as persuasively 
as possible; but do not forget to summon the 
will to surrender to the spell and thrill of the 
programme of Christian unity, and to labour 
heartily to carry it out to a successful issue. 
This cannot be done by stampeding any com- 
pany of Christians. It can be brought about 
only as the church is educated to see the advan- 
tages of co-operation and of the costs of prog- 
ress. We will then be ready to act intelligently, 
and profitably. 

The attempt has been occasionally made with 
success where in a community-church the dif- 
ferent denominations have united without nec- 
essarily renouncing their historic traditions. It 
is a question that deserves the most careful 
consideration whether such a course can be 
carried out on a larger scale. Can the Baptist 
unite and yet hold that immersion is the proper 
method, but nevertheless commune at the Lord^s 
Supper with those who accept infant baptism? 
Yes, if he ceases to be intolerant of other meth- 
ods and if his scruples are respected by those 
who differ from him. The Episcopalian can 
also join, if he accepts the New Testament view 



224 The Faith and the Fellowship 

that the church is a spiritual community which 
is made so, not by the transmission of spiritual 
gifts by episcopally-ordained men, but by the 
conferring of them directly by the Spirit of 
grace and light. Much should also be done to 
improve the devotional expression of our pub- 
lic worship, and here not a little can be learned 
from our Episcopal brother. The Congrega- 
tionalist can continue to believe in the independ- 
ance of the church, and yet be liberal enough to 
unite with those who hold different interpre- 
tations, without letting that fact interrupt his 
fellowship with them. The Presbyterian can 
retain his modified Calvinistic creed and rejoice 
in the sovereign grace of God which has pro- 
vided a full salvation in Christ to all who be- 
lieve. The Lutheran can also be at home if he 
does not insist on his peculiar doctrine concern- 
ing the elements used at the Lord's Supper. 
The Methodist need have no trouble if all agree 
in emphasising the experience of a personal re- 
demption in Jesus Christ. Where such a church 
can be established, it will set forth the wide- 
ness of God's mercy, the depth of His grace, the 
opulence of His love, and the glory of the blessed 
Eedeemer who saves to the uttermost all who 
come unto God through Him. Such a church 
will, moreover, proclaim the truth that sin is 
the fearful divider and the fretful excluder, and 



The Larger Vision 225 

not disagreements in matters of doctrine, polity 
and worship. All this may seem to be far too 
Utopian, but it is nevertheless worth having 
before us as an ideal. 

Let us then acknowledge that organic union 
is as much a dream to-day as when the seer of 
Patmos beheld the Holy City descending from 
heaven. Not amalgamation but federation is 
the more profitable course, in view of the pres- 
ent distress and hardness of heart. Our aim 
should not be external unity where all Chris- 
tians will subscribe to one legal constitution. 
^^It is the will of the True Pastor of the Uni- 
versal Church that His flock shall be one, but 
He does not require that it shall be included in 
a single fold.^'* Such a unity is truly apos- 
tolic. In the early church there were varieties 
of types of experience and traits of character, 
and yet all were one in Christ, and all were ex- 
ultingly harmonious in exalting ^^the Name 
which is above every name. ' ' One result of fed- 
eration will be to lessen that unhealthy compe- 
tition between churches in a town, to such an 
extent that it will be possible to exercise disci- 
pline, in the interests of character and right- 
eousness. An unworthy member of one church 
will not be welcomed by another church unless 

* "The Holy Catholic Church: The Communion of Saints/' 
by H. B. Swete, D.D., page 22. 



226 The Faith and the Fellowship 

there are credentials. The several branches 
of Protestantism will thus cease to be not only- 
disunited and competitive, but will also be able 
to co-operate in a larger way for the further- 
ance of social righteousness and everything that 
directly benefits the welfare of humanity. In 
our programme for Christian union, we must 
not ignore what Sir W. Eobertson NicoU has 
described as ^^the Church outside the churches/^ 
These elect spirits belong to no organisation, 
accept neither rule nor ritual ; but their allegi- 
ance to the Spirit of Christ is shown ^^in deeds 
of daring rectitude, in scorn for miserable aims 
that end with self.^' It is a mutual loss, theirs 
and ours, that we are not together ; and yet we 
without them cannot be perfect. We are, how- 
ever, confident that in the happy to-morrow, 
when spiritual bonds will be regarded as 
stronger than ecclesiastical barriers, room will 
be made for these rare souls, and a welcome 
granted them into the household of faith, where 
we enjoy the fellowship of good works, and the 
blessedness of faith, hope, and love. 

"From earth^s wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, 
Througli gates of pearl streams in the countless host, 
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
^Hallelujah, HaUelujah.'" 



I 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



